Convicted felon charged after man shot to death inside apartment

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:01][music] >> We begin tonight with an arrest in a murder investigation in Perinton. A convicted felon now accused of shooting and killing a man in his apartment.

[00:00:10]>> An innocent man and an innocent family lost a life yesterday.

[00:00:15]We can't forget that.

[00:00:18]Also, a predicate felon committed another senseless act of cold-blooded violence.

[00:00:25]>> Deputies say 35-year-old Tyree Ross Simmons shot and killed 32-year-old Ezra John Nunez at the victim's apartment on Pittsford-Palmyra Road early yesterday morning. Good evening, I'm Karen Edwards. Matt is off. 13 WHAM's Carly Miner has been following this case from the beginning. Carly?

[00:00:42]>> Yeah, Karen. I'm told a woman who lives in the same apartment building found the victim with a gunshot wound to his neck and tried rendering aid while calling 911. I spoke with another neighbor today who says she was woken up by all the commotion.

[00:00:57]During the overnight hours on Wednesday, a quiet neighborhood in Perinton turned into a crime scene.

[00:01:03]>> I was sleeping. All of a sudden, I hear a knock on the door. It woke me up. And it wasn't like a loud knock. It was just like a little slight knock. Open it up and it's the freaking Monroe County Sheriff.

[00:01:13]>> Deputies say a man later identified as 32-year-old Ezra John Nunez was found dead from a gunshot wound inside his apartment on Route 31. Bobby Stewy lives in the same apartment complex and says Nunez was fairly new to the building.

[00:01:28]>> I guess he was a bit of a loner. You know, kept to himself. So, um I only knew him a little bit. I've seen him around the building.

[00:01:35]>> Sheriff Todd Baxter says his team quickly identified a suspect.

[00:01:40]>> By the time they're waking up and the public is getting ready to go to work, our investigators had come up with a suspect name, a location, a vehicle description, and had resources on that person following them, watching them, and getting ready to apprehend them.

[00:01:57]>> Investigators say 35-year-old Tyree Ross Simmons was taken into custody hours later and charged with second-degree murder.

[00:02:05]>> Right now working with another victim in the case that called us from Lyle Avenue and had information about this. There was a third person involved.

[00:02:15]That third person was the common denominator.

[00:02:18]So it that brought the problem to the apartment.

[00:02:23]>> Deputies say Nunez and Ross Simmons did not know each other and a motive is still not clear.

[00:02:28]>> We have some good ideas. We we may not eventually know every specific detail of that, but we're not ready to release that at this time. It's nothing clear that the public would really understand.

[00:02:42]>> The sheriff says Ross Simmons has a lengthy criminal history.

[00:02:46]>> Ross Simmons has been convicted in the state of Virginia in 2020 of five felony charges including criminal possession of weapon and drug charges.

[00:02:54]Ross Simmons was also arrested by the Rochester Police Department in 2014 for gun charges and convicted of criminal possession of weapon. He has multiple other charges and convictions including DWI in the state of Georgia.

[00:03:06]Again, a repeat offender terrorizing our community.

[00:03:11]>> Ross Simmons pleaded not guilty at his arraignment this morning. He's being held in the Monroe County Jail without bail. Karen?