ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester Police have identified the on-duty taxi driver who was shot and killed on Bay Street during an apparent robbery on Monday morning as David Treese III from Rochester.

Officers believe Treese was robbed of his taxi, which was later found crashed and abandoned a block away on Central Park. That deadly shooting was the third homicide in just over 24 hours. Officers believe the first two homicides involved people who knew each other. There were also three non-fatal shootings in that period.

Rochester Police Chief David Smith spoke about the string of homicides in a Monday news conference. Officers began investigating the murder on Bay Street near Rhor Street around 4:20 a.m. after a driver called police to report finding a man dead on the side of the road. The man had at least one gunshot wound to his upper body.

Before that, on early Sunday morning, a man was shot and killed at the corner of Day Place and Columbia Avenue. RPD says the victim, 35-year-old Ricky Elliot, was killed in some sort of fight on the street.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, two men were shot on Avenue C and Conkey Avenue. After that, a man died after he was found injured near the door to an apartment complex on South Clinton Avenue on Sunday night. RPD is calling the death of 53-year-old Myron Fair a murder. However, officers are still working to determine how he was killed.

On Monday morning, a 15-year-old boy was shot around Hudson Avenue and Gilmore Street and dropped off at the hospital around 1:45 a.m. Just hours after that, police began investigating the murder on Bay Street.

Smith said RPD is in the early investigatory stages of each of the three homicides. He’s asking anyone with information to call 911 or by using the Report It app, which is anonymous.

“We need help from the community,” Smith said. “We need help from folks who know something. Even if you don’t want to reach out to us, there’s the mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention, there is Pathways to Peace, there are social agencies.”

Mayor Malik Evans also spoke at the news conference, saying that this level of violence is never normal in any community.

“There are surrounding towns in Monroe County that go years without someone getting shot. I want that same thing here in Rochester,” he said.

Evans said the city has made progress over the past two years in addressing gun violence but still has a long way to go. He is also asking witnesses, anyone with security video, or anyone with information to call 911.

“I want to encourage our community to continue to work overtime to put a stake in the ground, to say that violence and destruction cannot and should not be a normal part of our lives in the city. I don’t want anyone to get de-sensitized to violence,” he said.

You can see the full news conference here: