On November 7, 2016, Darryle Conner, a 32-year-old Black man from Rochester, New York, was caught in a burst of gunfire near the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Frost Avenue. It was late afternoon, around 5 p.m., when officers found Conner suffering from a gunshot wound. He was rushed to the hospital, but doctors could not save him. Another person, Derrick Reed, was also shot that day, wounded in the lower body and taken to the hospital separately.
In the first hours after the shooting, the scene offered little clarity beyond the hard facts: two victims, a busy corner, and no one immediately in custody. As investigators worked, the outline of what happened sharpened into a confrontation that spiraled into deadly violence. Prosecutors later said Akeem Harris came to that corner armed and confronted Reed, and that the gun was then passed to Akeem’s brother, Kadeem Harris, who fired seven shots—wounding Reed and killing Conner, described by the District Attorney’s Office as an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time.
More than a month after the shooting, police announced an arrest. On December 15, 2016, Akeem Harris was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree assault in connection with Conner’s death, and he was arraigned soon after.
The case moved through the courts in stages, ultimately tying both brothers to the same violent moment at Frost and Jefferson. A jury convicted Akeem Harris on May 30, 2017, of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon; he was later sentenced on July 14, 2017, to 26 years to life in state prison.
Kadeem Harris was convicted by a jury in April 2018 of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and on June 4, 2018, he was sentenced to 21 years to life for the murder plus 23 years for the attempted murder, ordered to run consecutively, for a total of 44 years to life. Years later, on July 3, 2024, an appellate court modified that punishment, ruling the overall sentence was unduly harsh and reducing the attempted-murder prison term to 14 years—bringing the aggregate term to 35 years of incarceration—while noting Akeem Harris received an aggregate term of 25 years to life.
