Jon Hand

@jonhand1

Rochester Police Clinton Section Capt. Korey Brown was just finishing up an interview with news reporters about a shooting on Lincoln Street Monday when another reporter pulled up — not in a television van or a satellite truck, but on two wheels and wearing a red bicycle helmet.

"Hey, Geoffery," Brown called and nodded as the young man crossed the street toward him and a lingering Democrat and Chronicle reporter.

"You know me?" the young man asked, pulling a red notebook from the breast pocket of his blue denim coat and looking past Brown and the yellow crime tape toward the spot where a man was shot in broad daylight about 30 minutes earlier — his clothes pulled off by paramedics and still strewn along the sidewalk.

Indeed, Brown did know him.

Geoffery Rogers is the "Youngest News Reporter in Rochester" according to his business card, website, Facebook page, Twitter account and Youtube channel, and he's gaining the attention and affection of many of Rochester's police officers because, unlike most 14-year-old reporters who focus on their school's cafeteria menu or modified sports teams, Geoffery's beat covers shootings, motor vehicle accidents, house fires and other public safety events in his hometown.

"I'm the youngest news reporter in Rochester," Geoffery quotes his card as he pulls a tripod from a backpack and clicks his phone into it to begin recording his questioning of Brown. "Everybody knows me."

To prove his point, the eighth-grader at Monroe High School rifles through a stack of officers' business cards he keeps in his wallet behind his school ID and RTS bus pass. A moment later his conversation with Brown is interrupted by two officers who call to him ("Geoffrey, what's up, buddy?") as they are leaving the crime scene. Geoffrey waves, and observes out loud to himself the change in police shifts.

"Third platoon guys are just getting here," he says as a new crop of patrol cars pull up.

Armed with a scanner app on his iPhone to listen for police calls (he was on his way to the library when he was rerouted by 911 dispatch for the shooting on Lincoln Street), his tripod, his bicycle and laminated press credentials given to him by the RPD, Geoffrey said he has reported on more than 100 events in Rochester.

Videos on his Facebook page show him at scenes day and night.

"During the week I have to be in by 8:30 p.m., weekends it's 9:30 p.m.," he said of his mother-assigned curfew.

He has covered marathons, festivals and other lighter events, but prefers crime coverage. He began reporting about two years ago when he was given the iPhone and visited a crime scene in his neighborhood.

"I walked up to the news reporters because they had these cool cameras and stuff and I was like, 'You know what? I'm going to do this when I get older,' so I bought some camera equipment and I just started doing this."

But he began in earnest at the beginning of this summer when he decided he didn't want to pay for his video game membership any more and needed to produce more content for his "fans" — as of 10 p.m. Thursday, 940 people "like" his Facebook page, GSL Show (GSL stands for Geoffrey Show Live). That's a growth of 654 percent in the last week.

"I said, 'You know what? I've gotta get back on my news because I can't let all these fans down, these people who are watching me I can't let them down so I just came out and started doing it again ... this will be 42 crime scenes," he said.

His mother said part of the reason her son started reporting was to make his neighborhood safer, and improve relations with police in his northeast Rochester neighborhood.

"I don't know where it comes from," laughs LaClara Carter, a local radio personality and stand-up comedian who hosts an open-mike night at Clarissa's Lounge every Monday. "He does amazing things. Last year there was a bully situation in the neighborhood and he called 311 and got them involved. He was really concerned with keeping the peace, he just wanted to feel safer in his neighborhood — what could he do in his community to make it safer? It's positive and he's got a real strong relationship with the neighborhood police."

Geoffery said he enjoys the conversations with officers and the interplay of interviews, but also wants to be taken seriously.

"They think I'm fooling around; people don't take me seriously because of who I am and other kids who do all this stuff," he said.

On Tuesday, he and Brown discussed what had happened on Lincoln Street: A 26-year-old man shot in the legs and taken to Rochester General Hospital. His injuries were not serious.

"Are they allowed to be in the crime scene or were they part of the shooting?" Geoffery asked Brown off camera of a crowd of people being interviewed by officers inside the cordoned off crime scene.

"They have been there the whole time," Brown explains.

"Oh. Must be scary," Geoffery said. "That's why I'm happy I kind of live on a quiet street. Gotta live on a quiet street, so you don't have to deal with this."

"It would be nice if we could make every street quiet," Brown replied.

"I think the city would have a lot more money if the city was quiet," Geoffery said, adding later that he does not worry about his safety and is not bothered by the nature of the events he covers.

"It's really nothing to me anymore, I've seen all types of stuff so it's not traumatizing to me at all, I'm just like an adult," he said. "I'm an adult in a kid's body, you get it? My soul is old; I got an old soul."

But his mother does worry, especially when he covers events such as a police chase and arrest of people on North Street a few months ago. Geoffery was in the middle of the chaotic scene and reported that dozens of police officers had guns drawn as they attempted to control a crowd.

"I do worry a lot, especially him being young and African-American ... but they (officers) look out for him," Carter said.

Geoffery said he is hoping to find some type of sponsorship so he can buy new equipment. He started a gofundme campaign Wednesday that had raised $565 of its $1,000 goal by 5 p.m. Thursday.

"I just want to get the word out, being a reporter is kind of fun and I like camera equipment and all the cool things they do, be on TV and stuff like that," he said. But for now, he'll just keep jumping on his bicycle, responding to the police calls he hears on his iPhone scanner:

For his fans.

JHAND@Gannett.com