The Bug Jar bar is seen as a staple in Rochester for local music artists.

"Bug Jar was one of the few venues you could go to and perform your music," said Jason Gere.

Gere manages two of the rappers scheduled to perform at the nightclub on the night of the fatal shooting that happened outside the venue.

Police say a fight involving about 100 people broke out inside the bar during a rap concert.
The altercation eventually spilled out onto Monroe Avenue and Union, and 21 year old Deavoghn Hernandez-Ruffin was shot and killed.

"It's really sad because it's an event to showcase the talent in Rochester," said Gere.

Gere believes the incident will give local rap and hip hop concerts around town a bad reputation.

"I'm trying to make a career out of this, so to have something like this to happen. A lot of people have been putting a lot of work in for the last 10 years to make hip hop an actual possibility in Rochester and something like this kills it... and now everything people have been working for is in jeopardy," adds Gere.

Michael Hoepfl agrees. He says for the past seven years he's performed at rap concerts at the bar and throughout Rochester under the stage name "Contact."

"It's a tragedy and it's terrible that this happened. But I'm watching on the news and all these news channels are trying to make that hip hop music and rap music is what caused this and it needs to not be displayed like that because it's just hurting the people that are doing good for the culture," said Hoepfl.

Both fear venues will shy away from hosting their events.

"Well, it affects our booking that's for sure," said Hoepfl.

"This is really going to hurt because now venues that didn't want to host hip hop were looking for a reason not to host it and this right here gives them a legitimate reason," said Gere.

The owners of the bar have agreed to temporarily shut down until at least Friday.
Council member and Public Safety Committee Chairman Adam McFadden believes the music nor the bar should be blamed for the fatal act of violence.

"It gets easy for people to blame an artform without really going in depth with why somebody felt the need to resolve a conflict with a gun," said McFadden.