Rochester Armory Closed Indefinitely

The Rochester Armory will be closed indefinitely, according to Police Chief David Smith.  He had scheduled a meeting with the owner of the property, after a Glorilla concert at the Armory ended with two deaths, and several injured, but the owner declined to attend the meeting.

Smith said the owner had a choice of meeting with the committee chaired by Smith, to discuss some matters, and to get the license to the Armory renewed, or have the City of Rochester issue the license,  but close the Armory temporarily, while the deaths and concert were being investigated.  “He didn’t show, so we denied the renewal,” said Smith.

The Armory is one of Rochester’s largest concert venues, and had several upcoming concerts scheduled, which likely will be cancelled because there will be no license to have them.

At Sunday’s concert, the crowd thought they were hearing gunshots, panicked and ran, trampling several, including               Rhondesia Belton of Buffao   and Brandy Miller, a licensed nursing assistant.  Although police were already on the scene to do traffic control as the concert ended, they were unable to get inside the building for about 20 minutes, due to the rush and crush of people coming out. They found Belton, critically injured and sent her to the hospital, where she later died. By the time they got to Miller, she was unconscious, and once transported to the hospital, hospital staff could find no indication of brain activity.  However, it was found that she had previously signed papers to donate her heart, liver, and kidneys to four other people, which happened this week, and then was removed from life support.

Neither the owner nor his lawyer will return calls to any of the media regarding the Sunday night incident.