Police raid ends with suspects at large

A small army of Rochester Police officers and SWAT team members converged on northwest Rochester on Wednesday evening in a search for suspect(s) from an earlier burglary.

According to Rochester Police Capt. Mark Wiater, police executed a search warrant for an address on Clay Avenue, which intersects Dewey Avenue, after a burglary was reported earlier in the day in Rochester where a number of high-powered rifles were taken.

He said that multiple people were taken into custody for questioning, but the suspect(s) remain at large.

"Just based on the type of weapons that were taken in the burglary," said Wiater, "that's why we had the precautions that we had."

It was unclear how many rifles were stolen and if any were recovered, but Wiater said that it was "under a dozen." He wouldn't comment on whether police had any of the weapons, "because we're in the middle of our search right now."

Wiater added that, as far he knows, the weapons were registered.

The police raid forced closure of a section of Dewey Avenue just north of Aquinas Institute for more than five hours. Officers advised residents to stay indoors.

Two armored SWAT vehicles arrived on the scene. They were followed by an unmarked white van that contained SWAT officers in full camouflage uniform. A Rural/Metro Medical Services ambulance followed those vehicles in with a special team of paramedics also dressed in camouflage.

A helicopter from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine, which according to Wiater was already in the air, aided in the search.

A little after 7 p.m., five RPD cars left the seen and headed south on Dewey toward downtown with at least four people visible in the back of the cars.

When asked if this investigation was in any way connected to the Genesee Street triple homicide last month, Wiater responded, "It is not."

Wiater said this was a typical burglary investigation for police when a weapon like this is involved.

"This is the type of investigation we handle all the time," Wiater said. "Burglary location, if we know there's a location where there might be a weapon that was taken from one location to another, we're going to take these type of precautions before we do a search warrant on that location."

The investigation is ongoing.

WCLEVELAND@Gannett.com