Nearly two months after 14-year-old Zah’nia Barr was shot in the head while standing amid a crowd of several hundred people on North Clinton Avenue, Rochester police have made an arrest. Daequan Brown, 26, was taken into custody Wednesday near Central Park following a foot pursuit, and he now faces a second-degree murder charge in Barr’s death.
According to WHEC, police do not believe Barr was the intended target of the gunfire that killed her. The outlet reports that one of several shots fired that night struck her in the head, killing her instantly. As 13WHAM reports, Brown was running through a parking lot on North Clinton Avenue when he began firing a .380-caliber handgun toward people fleeing the scene.
Chaos in a Crowded Parking Lot
The shooting unfolded just after midnight on Aug. 1, as officers tried to break up a gathering of several hundred people on North Clinton Avenue, according to RochesterFirst. Gunfire erupted as police attempted to disperse the crowd, and in the chaos, Barr was struck along with three other people, all of whom suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the station's report notes.
Per 13WHAM, Brown himself was wounded that night, arriving at Rochester General Hospital by private vehicle with a gunshot wound to his ankle, according to police. Police say Brown was prohibited from possessing a handgun in New York state because of two prior felony convictions, a detail also confirmed by the same account.
Arrest Comes After Weeks on the Run
Rochester police found Brown in the area of Central Park on Wednesday and took him into custody after he fled on foot, according to the Minority Reporter. He was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and was held in Monroe County jail without bail, 13WHAM reports.
Brown pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday morning and is due back in court Oct. 6 at 11 a.m. for a preliminary hearing, according to RochesterFirst. Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Jirik said he would pursue the process as best he could, and he commended the continued diligence of the Rochester Police Department’s major crimes unit, per 13WHAM.
Brown is 26.
Part of a Violent Weekend, Against a Falling Trend
Barr was one of 10 people shot that weekend on Rochester’s northeast side, according to WHEC. A separate shooting on the North Clinton corridor that same night left one person dead and three others injured, all with non-life-threatening wounds, as reported by 13WHAM.
The violence stood out against a broader citywide decline. Rochester recorded 150 shootings in the 365 days ending May 10, 2026, the lowest total since December 2018 and a 95 percent drop from peaks in 2021 and 2022, according to the Rochester Beacon. Compared with the same period in 2025, the Beacon reported shootings down 16 percent, fatal shootings down 88 percent, and homicides down 82 percent, with first-quarter homicides reaching a low not seen since 2017 and 2018.
