On a March afternoon in 2022, a sense of normalcy was shattered for a group of teenagers in Rochester, New York. Seventeen-year-old Bryson Simpson, a male student, had just stepped off his school bus with three friends and was walking along Otis Street when their lives were irrevocably altered. Across the street, another young man was walking. In a sudden and violent turn of events, this individual turned and fired multiple gunshots at the group of friends.
Bryson was struck in the upper
body by the gunfire and was pronounced dead at the scene. His friends, who were walking alongside him, were physically unharmed but were left to witness the tragic and senseless end to their friend's life. The shooter fled the area immediately following the incident, leaving a community in shock and mourning. The Rochester Police Department quickly launched an investigation into the city's 10th homicide of the year.
The investigation led authorities to identify another student, 18-year-old Salahuddin Floyd, Jr., as the suspect in Bryson's murder. Floyd, who also attended Edison Tech where Bryson was a student, became the subject of a manhunt involving the U.S. Marshals Task Force. An indictment charging him with the homicide was unsealed on May 24, 2022.
In January 2023, Salahuddin Floyd, Jr., then 19 years old, pleaded guilty to Manslaughter in the 1st Degree for the shooting death of Bryson Simpson. The following month, he was sentenced to 25 years in the New York State Department of Corrections, to be followed by 5 years of post-release supervision. Prosecutors described the act as an ambush, highlighting that Bryson was a high school student whose life was taken far too young in broad daylight as he was getting off a school bus.
