Morning News Brief

A group of protesters gathered outside the Cornerstone Church on Bank St Rd Sunday morning attempting to reach members of the church and get them to turn against the leadership who had invited the ReAwaken America Tour to meet there in August.  The protest was organized by Reverend Roula Alkhouri of Batavia First Presbetyrian.  Alkhouri encouraged protestors to bring signs and and messages and to have quote, “no name calling or demonizing messages,” and that the people they are protesting from the tour use, “deceit, lies and fear to divide,” and “promote white supremacy.”  She also compared the tour to the Charlottesville Virginia Rally in 2017 that ended in a woman being killed.  Another protest organizer, Rev Dr Sheila McCullough wrote for The Batavian that “I am afraid the organizers of The Great Awakening vs The Greatest Reset Tour have been bamboozled, hoodwinked, and duped by Russian propaganda.”  The tour was moved from Rochester to Batavia because of death threats against the owner and employees of the location it was to be held.

2 more people were fatally shot in Rochester over the weekend, marking at least 3 dead since the state of emergency over violence was declared Thursday.  The 3 are Police officer Tony Mazurkiewicz who was shot from behind while sitting in his patrol vehicle Thursday night, a man in his 30s shot on Lyle ave around 1:30am Sunday morning, and a man in his 20s shot around 3:30 am on N Clinton Ave on Saturday.  Rochester Major Crimes is investigating the 2 shootings over the weekend.

The man who attempted to assault State Senator Lee Zeldin at a campaign rally in Fairport on Thursday was released from custody on his own recognizance within hours of the attack.  Zeldin had put out a statement saying that this would be the case because of New York’s lax bail reform laws.  The man, 43 year old David Jakubonis of Fairport was rearrested however within a few hours of being released and is being held on federal charges.  He allegedly climbed on stage with Zeldin and attempted to stab him in the neck with a plastic blade which had a punch style handle.  He said he was drunk and had heard Zeldin was disrespecting veterans and didn’t know who he was attacking.  Governor Hochul is also in the spotlight for releasing a schedule of Zeldin’s events and calling on Democrats to RSVP to events which were going to be attended by “dangerous extremist groups” which Zeldin says was a call to violence against him and his campaign.

Batavia Muckdogs and GLOW YMCA volunteers held the Challenger Baseball Series Saturday at Dwyer Stadium. The event was for children with developmental or other disabilities between the ages of 5 and 21.  The YMCA has held this event in the past.  The Muckdogs players appeared to have just as much fun as the kids.  Each participant was given 4 free tickets to Sunday’s game, a team hat, and were on the field with the team for the National Anthem.