A woman was grazed in the calf by gunfire Thursday afternoon on Buffalo's East Side, after shots rang out near Rose and Carlton streets and left a nearby vehicle riddled with bullet holes. She declined medical attention at the scene, even as police launched an investigation into who opened fire and why.
Buffalo police officers responded to a shots-fired call in the area around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, according to WIVB News 4. When officers arrived, they found the woman with the gunfire wound to her calf, along with a vehicle that had been struck by gunfire during the incident.
Despite the injury, the woman refused medical treatment, the station reports. No suspect, motive, or further details about how the shooting unfolded have been released, and it remains unclear how many people were involved or whether anyone else was hurt.
Police Seek Tips as Investigation Continues
Buffalo police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call or text 911 or the department's confidential tip line at 716-847-2255, per the same account. No arrests had been announced as of Thursday afternoon.
The Rose and Carlton incident echoes other East Side gun violence cases that have drawn police attention in recent years, including a prior shooting on Main Street that left one man dead, as WIVB News 4 reported at the time. That earlier story also included an editor's note acknowledging a police error in how the outcome of one victim's injuries was initially described.
Shootings Reported Down Citywide in 2026
The Thursday shooting comes even as city officials have pointed to a broader decline in gun violence this year. A city update posted by the City of Buffalo states that the city recorded 71 shooting incidents in 2026, which it says is 46 percent fewer than the city's previous 10-year average for the same point in the year.
Governor Kathy Hochul's office has also touted falling numbers, saying that through March, the Buffalo Police Department reported 10 shooting incidents involving injury, down 84 percent from 63 during the same period in 2021, according to the Governor's office. State officials have tied some of that progress to New York's Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative, which the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services says provides funding, training, and technical support to 28 police agencies across 21 counties in an effort to reduce shootings and firearm-related violent crime. Residents looking to track shooting activity locally can also consult Erie County's gun violence dashboard, which allows filtering by year, jurisdiction, and agency.
Those statistics offer some broader context, but they don't change what happened Thursday on Rose and Carlton streets. For now, police have released no update on a suspect or motive, and the investigation remains open.
