Mayor Robert Restaino said on Tuesday he was “deeply saddened” by a pair of deadly shootings that claimed the lives of two city residents over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
In his first public comments since the separate, early Sunday shooting incidents, Restaino said he’s planning to convene a meeting of community leaders to discuss what he hopes could be lasting solutions to issues with gun violence in the community.
“It’s never going to be fixed just by government deciding by edict that something’s going to happen,” Restaino told a reporter following a press conference downtown where he helped break ground on a new, state-supported housing development.
Restaino said he thinks it’s important to get together for a serious discussion to get beyond some “catchy” and figure out some real, impactful solutions. He said he knows there are no easy answers to the situation and is calling the meeting because he wants to listen to what others have to say about the issue.
“You don’t come to any position, whether it is in business or government, with all of the answers,” Restaino said. “As a matter of fact, if you think you do, then that’s where the problem starts, so for me it’s really about calling people together to have that conversation and more than anything else to listen, to have that collaborative discussion that maybe can come up with some solutions.”
“Those solutions won’t be ones that, again, would be instantaneous, but I think if we are going to tackle that problem, then we need to do it in those steps that are necessary that are not only a counterbalance, but are lasting. We want to make it lasting,” he added.
Both weekend shootings remain under investigation by Falls police. The first shooting occurred at about 1 a.m. Sunday near the intersection of Highland and Fairfield avenues. Police identified the victim in that case as 19-year-old Jayla Brown, a 2025 graduate of Niagara Falls High School.
The second deadly shooting happened about two hours later at the former Bakery Lounge in the 3000 block of Niagara Street. Police identified the victim in that incident as 22-year-old Jalin Rios.
A 2023 NFHS graduate, Rios was a classroom associate at Harry F. Abate Elementary this past year and a Latchkey Program aide at Maple Elementary.
Prior to that, he was a teachers’ aide at Cataract Elementary
“He was a young man who connected with kids and had a big bright smile,” Falls schools Superintendent Stan Wojtan said. “It’s just a tragedy, but we know the community will rally around (his family).”
A second victim of the gunfire outside the Bakery was treated for non-life-threatening wounds and released from Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center (NFMMC). That victim, a 20-year-old male, has reportedly not provided CID investigators with “useful information” about the shooting that left him wounded.
Anyone with information about the shooting incidents is encouraged to contact the Niagara Falls Police Department Criminal Investigation Division at (716) 286-4553 or the general information line at (716) 286-4711.