The Albany County Sheriff is calling on state lawmakers to help address violence in the city of Albany, which was on full display Wednesday.
A shooting on Hudson Avenue near Quail Street in Albany Wednesday set off a manhunt that ended in gunfire in Rockland County hours later.
Albany Police say a man was shot in the head and the suspect in the incident was killed after shooting and wounding a New York State Trooper on Interstate 87 in Ramapo two hours later.
Police Chief Eric Hawkins says the call of "shots fired on the 400 block of Hudson Avenue" came in just after 1 p.m. "Within two minutes, Albany police officers had arrived in the area saw the suspect had been shot in the head area, interviewed witnesses and quickly got all the information about the suspect vehicle," Hawkins said. "Our Crime Analysis Center located here in headquarters. I started working on the case immediately and within minutes on the Crime Analysis Center had identified a vehicle that identified the license plate and was following the vehicle on city cameras throughout the city of Albany. The vehicle eventually left the city of Albany southbound on I87. And at that point, members of the Albany police department in the Crime Analysis Center put out a B O L O, a ‘Be on the lookout’ for the vehicle to the state police because they police our freeway system."
A spokesperson for Troop T says at 2:55 p.m. two troopers, alerted by the BOLO, stopped a white 2009 Mercedes in the Town of Ramapo. During the traffic stop, the suspect, 35-year old Rakim Tillery of Albany, the sole occupant of the vehicle opened fire. Troopers Steven Missale and Ronald Raymond were taken to Westchester Medical Center, treated for non-life threatening injuries, and released.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday evening, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan praised the swift, multi-agency response. "This is an example of what New York State is doing about violence in our city. It's investments like these that are allowing us to get dangerous people off the streets. And I want to commend again, the Albany police department, our detectives, our police officers, for their outstanding work in ensuring that we were able to get this dangerous person out of our community and off of our streets," said Sheehan.
The incident follows the New Year's Day death of a woman shot in the head Christmas morning on State Street. Albany Police say 23-year old Sky Lemmons-Dixon, the city's 20th homicide of 2023, was shot at a residence on the 700 block of State Street. The Times Union reported Lemmons-Dixon had been warned not to cooperate with a criminal case against her former boyfriend, and then disappeared before his trial began in October. It is not known when she returned to Albany. Police are asking anyone with information to contact detectives.
Hawkins reiterated his stance that the majority of gun crimes in the city involve "individuals who know each other."
"When you look at the percentage of the violent acts that we're seeing, it's mostly interpersonal," Hawkins said. "And so my message, as it pertains to homicides and other acts of violence in the city, is that we have to do a better job of as a community, of helping ourselves deal with interpersonal conflicts, because that's the overwhelming majority of the violence that we're seeing in the community."
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple says his office maintains a dedicated 10-person detail to assist city police.
"And they're working. And they're pulling guns, and they're pulling stolen cars, and they're pulling wanted people. And they're stopping organized retail theft in some of our malls working with other agencies. It's just right now, it's as bad as I've ever seen it. And I know we've gone through phases of crack cocaine and the heroin epidemic, which is still alive and strong here every day. We have some serious issues going on. And I know that the Senate and the Assembly came back to town yesterday. And I don't know how anyone can stand up there and say, 'we've done a great job for the state of New York, in reducing crime.' And I just need them to focus on what is going on in our streets.”
Apple says more officers need to be on Albany streets and he’s added patrols in recent weeks for “targeted crime enforcement.”
