In the late hours of August 21, 2022, James Hallenbeck, a 29-year-old man, was following his usual routine of a nighttime walk through his Rochester, NY, neighborhood to unwind. He was on Olean Street, not far from his South Plymouth Avenue home, listening to music on his headphones and drinking a can of beer. This peaceful ritual, however, took a tragic turn when he was accosted by at least two individuals who intended to rob him.
In the ensuing confrontation, Hallenbeck was shot and killed, his body left on a grassy verge just half a mile from his house.
When police arrived at the scene around 1:45 a.m., they found Hallenbeck unresponsive with a gunshot wound. He had no identification on him, as his documents had been stolen during the robbery, which delayed his identification until the following morning. Investigators determined that the only item missing was a credit card. The initial investigation provided few leads, as there were no witnesses to the crime itself. Detectives learned that Hallenbeck's stolen credit card was used at a reservation in Genesee County, but the individuals who used the card were determined not to have been involved in the murder. The case grew cold, but investigators persisted, meticulously reviewing hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from the area. A critical piece of the puzzle came from a Wi-Fi ping at the nearby Phyllis Wheatley Community Library, which helped identify social media accounts that had accessed the network around the time of the shooting.
After a lengthy investigation spanning nearly three years, a breakthrough occurred. On November 18, 2025, police arrested 21-year-old Rahjule Keeton in connection with Hallenbeck's death. Keeton was taken into custody during a traffic stop and was subsequently indicted by a grand jury. He faces charges of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery with a deadly weapon, and second-degree robbery aided by another. Investigators revealed that the gun used to kill Hallenbeck had been recovered in a separate investigation and was linked to several other violent crimes in the city. The vehicle used by the suspects to flee the scene was also identified as a car that had been stolen a month prior to the murder. While Keeton's arrest brought a sense of relief to Hallenbeck's family, law enforcement officials have stated that they believe at least one other person was involved in the crime, and the investigation remains ongoing to bring all responsible parties to justice.
