A Rochester man died early Saturday morning at Strong Memorial Hospital after being shot outside a dance party at Logan’s Party House on Scottsville Road.
Antwan Spivey, 21, was pronounced dead around 5 a.m.
According to a spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy John Helfer, police responded around 1:40 a.m. to reports of shots fired in the parking lot outside the party.
“As far as I know, when he was walking away from the building, he was shot in the ribs,” co-owner of Logan’s Robert O’Conner said.
The party was sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta sorority, which has members at UR, Rochester Institute of Technology and SUNY Brockport. O’Connor said that the sorority had proper security in place.
“The security was excellent,” he said. “The people running the party did a good job.”
According to Dean of Students Jody Asbury, there is only one member of DST at UR and a bus with many UR students had left prior to the shooting.
“Our role in organizing this event was very limited given that we only have one student in this sorority,” she said.
As a result of the shooting, O’Connor said that Logan’s is rethinking its policy on hosting college parties.
“Right now, I don’t think I will, unless I can find a way that this will never, ever happen again,” O’Connor said.
UR administrators are not taking any action to change the current policy regarding off-campus parties.
“We met to try and figure out what we might have done differently,” Asbury said, “but frankly we don’t see how any of our students or administration could have done much differently with the evidence we have so far.”
O’Connor said he has considered requiring buses to shuttle students to and from parties and closing his parking lot. “I think that’s one way to keep people who aren’t supposed to be there out of there,” he said.
For now, Logan’s does not have any college parties scheduled. RIT alum Amit Rateria was planning a dance party for international students at Logan’s this weekend, but is now trying to find a new location and has moved the date for the party back one week.
“Logan’s didn’t really cancel,” he said. “They just told us the situation and said that we might want to find another place to have our party.”
Rateria said that he is upset that he has to change plans, but doesn’t blame Logan’s for the incident.
The shooting has led some to question the safety of off-campus parties, but Rateria said that he thinks there is a possibility for such an incident to occur anywhere.
“It can happen on campus, too,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where the party is at, just who shows up.”
Taylor can be reached at ktaylor@campustimes.org.
