Albany Police say an officer is recovering after being shot early Wednesday morning after approaching a vehicle he previously had attempted to stop for traffic violations. The suspect has since died.
Police Chief Eric Hawkins says it happened around 12:30 a.m. in the area of North Main Avenue and Western Avenue. Minutes before, the officer involved was in his police vehicle, situated in a parking space in front of Center Station along Western Avenue. Hawkins says the officer observed a vehicle whiz by at a high rate of speed. He gave chase, but ended the pursuit when the suspect began driving in the wrong direction on one-way streets. Narrating edited body and car cam video, Hawkins says it wasn't long before the officer spotted the vehicle again, parked on the side of the road.
“And now he's exiting his vehicle to approach it," said Hawkins. "He doesn't at this point, in all likelihood, doesn't even know whether the vehicle is occupied or not. In right here, and so you can see the door is open to the vehicle. And you can see a shadowy figure starting to emerge from the rear that vehicle.”
Hawkins says the officer didn't even have enough time to even draw his weapon when he noticed the deadly threat. In a split second the suspect and the officer both were down.
"The suspect clearly fired at the officer first, struck the officer. The officer returned fire at some point during that confrontation. It was over 10 rounds that we found at the scene. Ten shell casings, more than 10 shell casings were found at the scene," Hawkins said.
The officer was in surgery Wednesday afternoon, according to Mayor Kathy Sheehan. “And we are hopeful for an outcome that will result in him being able to carry on. And we are so grateful that that was the outcome, it could have been very different. But again, this is an act of depraved gun violence, and it has hit our city. And it has hit the close knit community of our police department. And I encourage all of you as I did earlier this morning, if you see a police officer today, please thank them for their service,” said Sheehan.
Hawkins pointed out that his officers are trained to engage with traffic violators if they're a single unit without calling for backup.
"A lot of times when our officers are dealing with situations like that, they see the vehicle later. Most of the time that vehicle is unoccupied,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins says police have yet to determine why the suspect, said to be in his mid to late 20s, was parked there. Investigators are trying to determine who the car was registered to.
"We're trying to confirm a lot of details concerning the person but I can say that Albany has had very little contact with this person," said Hawkins. "But we do know that the person has had some contact with some other jurisdictions. I don't know the nature of those contacts, necessarily, but I do know that some of those contacts were potential criminal base contacts that that jurisdiction had."
An autopsy is being conducted on the suspect, an Albany resident.
“The New York State Attorney General's Office has already been notified and they've already initiated their investigation of this incident. The Albany Police Department's Office of Professional Standards will be conducting an internal investigation, and we’ll also give the Civilian Police Review Board an opportunity to investigate the incident as well,” said Hawkins.
Police did not immediately identify the suspect or the officer.
Videos below provided by the Albany Police Department.
