Julien Tyre Walthour, a 28-year-old Black man, was killed in Rochester, New York on December 30, 2023, after a quiet stretch of Avenue D turned into a crime scene just after nightfall. Around 8:15 p.m., police were called to the intersection of Avenue D and Bauman Street, where a car sat stopped in the roadway. Inside, Walthour was slumped over and unresponsive, shot at least once in the torso, as first responders tried in vain to keep him alive.
In the first hours, the details were sparse and the city was left with only the image of that stalled vehicle and a life cut short. Investigators treated it as a homicide, asking anyone who had seen something—anything—to come forward, while the neighborhood absorbed the shock of another fatal shooting. For days afterward, authorities had not announced an arrest, and there was no public confirmation that anyone had been taken into custody.
As the investigation continued, police said the killing was tied to a drug transaction that spiraled out of control. Detectives described the shooting as happening after a deal “gone bad,” shifting the story from a mystery at a crossroads into something more personal and combustible: a meeting that was supposed to be brief, an exchange that was supposed to be routine, and then a sudden decision that ended with gunfire and Walthour dying where he sat.
Nearly three months later, on March 21, 2024, authorities announced an arrest. Keyon Wright, 18, of Rochester, was taken into custody after U.S. Marshals found him in a vehicle on Laser Street, police said. Investigators alleged Wright was the shooter, and that he was carrying a loaded 9 mm handgun when he was arrested.
Wright was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, with arraignment scheduled in Rochester City Court the following day. Public reporting around the arrest did not describe additional suspects being charged in connection with Walthour’s death, and no later public court outcome was included in the sources available here.
