Utica Teen Arrested on Attempted Murder Charges Following Shooting

The younger you are, the more impressionable you may be. That seems to be the reason behind senseless violence going on in the City of Utica.

The City of Utica has seen an abundance of youth violence the past few years, but that has really ramped up in 2024. In fact, the first two homicides of this year involved literal children under the age of 18. It is a situation that law enforcement, elected officials and the general public struggles to wrap their head around. It is not a problem exclusive to Utica either. In June of last year, U.S. News and World Report released findings that stated,

The homicide rate among youth – at 9 per 100,000 in 2001 – sat at 10.7 per 100,000 by 2021, punctuated by a 60% rise between 2014 and 2021. Prior to that upward trend, the rate among people 10 to 24 years old had been in fairly steady decline for almost a decade, dropping nearly 30% from 2006 to 2014.

The reasons for this can unfortunately only be speculated, but one thing is for sure the solution has to be found quickly.

Utica Police announced Thursday that they made an arrest stemming from the shooting incident they reported on Tuesday. Back on June 18th, police say officers encountered a male suffering a gunshot wound to his lower extremities in the area of Winner Avenue and Whitesboro Street.

Police have released new information stating that early on they were able to establish a possible suspect and on Wednesday members of the New York/New Jersey U.S. Marshall's Regional Fugitive Task Force along with members of The Utica Police Department Patrol Division located and arrested that suspect.

The alleged shooter has been identified as 19-year-old Randy Reyes of Rome, NY. He was taken into custody and charged with Attempted Murder in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree. When this violence will end is not known, but the recent trends are not promising.