Shatina Jones, a 46-year-old Black woman from Buffalo, New York, was a loving mother of four and grandmother of two. Her family described her as the rock who held them together—a fun, caring, and non-judgmental entrepreneur who would do anything for anybody. In May 2024, she traveled to Rochester to celebrate her daughter Shyasia's 26th birthday, a trip that would end in an unimaginable tragedy.
The celebration began on the evening of May 5, 2024, at a concert at the Blue Cross Arena. After the show, Shatina went to stay the night at the Rochester home of her best friend of more than 30 years. In the early hours of May 6, around 1 a.m., she stepped out onto the porch on Rialto Street to smoke a cigarette. At that moment, a car approached and an occupant opened fire, spraying the porch with nearly two dozen gunshots from multiple weapons.
Shatina was fatally wounded in the attack. Also killed was Timothy Chealey, a 43-year-old from Rochester.
A third person, a man in his 20s, was shot but survived his injuries. Investigators quickly determined the shooting was not random but a targeted act of retaliation stemming from an altercation that had occurred at the concert hours earlier. An assistant district attorney would later state that one of the victims had nothing to do with the earlier dispute.
The investigation led police to Jermaine Williams, then 23 years old. On May 31, 2024, authorities located and arrested him in Niagara Falls. He was brought back to Rochester to face charges for the double homicide. During his arraignment, tensions boiled over in the courtroom, and a brawl erupted between the families of the victims and the suspect. Deputies used pepper spray to control the crowd, and two people were arrested for disorderly conduct.
In March 2026, a jury convicted Jermaine Williams, then 25, on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder for the killings. The Monroe County District Attorney stated that the verdict delivered justice for the victims, whose lives were "senselessly taken." An assistant district attorney called the crime a "calculated and cowardly act of retaliation," noting that Williams made a "deliberate choice to answer conflict with murder."
The case concluded in April 2026, when Jermaine Williams was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.
