Cheyenne E. Farewell, a 20-year-old female, was a student at SUNY Brockport with dreams of becoming an English teacher. On the night of October 17, 2020, she was at a Halloween party on South Niagara Street in Lockport, New York, when her life was tragically cut short. Gunfire erupted outside the garage where the party was being held, with bullets piercing through the closed metal door. Cheyenne was struck and fatally wounded, dying en route to the hospital.
Five other people at the party, ranging in age from 15 to 21, were also injured in the indiscriminate shooting.
The investigation, led by the Lockport Police Department with assistance from multiple other law enforcement agencies, quickly moved forward. It was determined that Cheyenne was not the intended target of the shooting but was rather an innocent victim caught in a senseless act of violence. The Niagara County District Attorney stated that the suspects were acting on a grudge that did not involve Cheyenne or the other victims. Within days, two teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were arrested in connection with the shooting. An adult, 21-year-old Jonathan Frey, was also taken into custody for his role in the incident.
The legal proceedings that followed brought some measure of justice for Cheyenne and the other victims. The 17-year-old shooter, Shawn Johnson, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, multiple assault charges, and a weapons charge. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. The 16-year-old who was with Johnson and possessed a gun but did not fire it pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree. He was granted youthful offender status and sentenced to one and one-third to four years in state prison. Jonathan Frey, who drove the vehicle involved in the shooting, pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution and received a sentence of two to four years in state prison.
