Syracuse man dies after shooting on Palmer Avenue, police investigate homicide

Gunfire on Palmer Avenue turned into Syracuse’s latest homicide when 68-year-old Dwayne Frazier died after being shot in the head outside a white home at 301 Palmer Avenue.

Police said officers were sent to the 300 block of Palmer Avenue around 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, after reports of a shooting. Frazier, a Syracuse man, was found with a gunshot wound to the head and taken to Upstate University Hospital in critical condition. He later died, shifting the case from a shooting investigation to a homicide probe.

A section of Palmer Avenue was blocked while officers worked the scene, and evidence markers were placed near shell casings as investigators documented the area. No arrest had been announced, and police had not released a suspect description. Detectives were still in the early stages of the case, with the city’s Criminal Investigations Division asking anyone with information to call 315-442-5222.

The killing lands in a city that has spent the past year pulling homicide numbers down, but only after years of heavy violence. Syracuse recorded 14 homicides in 2025, the fewest in more than a decade and a 56% drop from the pandemic-era peak. The city recorded 23 homicides in 2024, a total that was still above average for Syracuse. Onondaga County’s overall violent crime rate also fell more than 6% in 2024, but the county’s broader decline has not erased the disruption each new shooting brings to blocks like this one on the South Side.

The scene on Palmer Avenue showed how quickly one police call can become a homicide case, a forensic search and a neighborhood shutdown. For Syracuse, the death of Frazier is another test of whether the city’s violence-response strategy can keep pace with repeated shootings while detectives, prosecutors and neighborhood leaders work to hold the line on gun violence.