Albany Police said a 17-year-old victim who was caught in the crossfire of a July 4th gun battle died from his injuries Thursday evening. The teen’s death comes as youth crime in Albany continues to tax leaders.
Vance Mims III was with his family at Albany's Empire State Plaza to take in the July 4th fireworks show. At the end of the celebration, he and three other people found themselves in the middle of a gun battle between two 15-year olds. Mims was shot in the head and now has succumbed to the injury, the Albany Police Department announced Friday.
In all, July 4th saw 10 people shot and a building torched by one of the 15-year old's flare guns. Both 15-year olds were taken into custody, one charged with attempted murder, the other with shooting the flare gun into a building that ended with the structure burning to the ground.
The Albany Country District Attorney's office says the charge will be upgraded. Mims’ death comes as Albany leaders continue to look for answers on youth violence as new cases make news. Notably, two Albany Police officers crashed while arresting a 15-year-old Thursday evening.
In a statement, Chief City Auditor and Democratic Mayoral nominee Dorcey Applyrs extended her "deepest condolences" to Mims' family while also saying that Albany has to break the troubling cycle.
"While many across Albany are doing all they can to interrupt cycles of violence and build stronger, safer communities, today we must also pause to honor this young man’s life. We cannot, and will not, lose sight of the individual behind the headline: a son, a friend, a member of our community," Applyrs wrote.
The Albany County Legislature’s Law and Public Safety committees held a special meeting Thursday night to discuss solutions. As part of that conversation, leaders are debating the state’s Raise The Age law, which as of 2019 has made it so 16- and 17-year-olds cannot be charged as an adult except in cases of the most serious crimes.
District Attorney Lee Kindlon says the law complicates cases involving teens.
"When an AO, the adolescent offender, the AO, is charged initially, we only have a very, very short window to worry about. The case, to worry about this AO, this individual charge. Because typically, within a week of charges being filed, unless we get it through a very small window of opportunity, that AO passes out of the criminal justice system into the family court system. And this is why I've said repeatedly the Raise the Age paradigm, the sets of laws that were passed a couple of years ago with reforms. They're good, but they're not great, because unfortunately, the district attorney's office loses the ability to prosecute the case in whatever way we see fit," said Kindlon.
An arrest in Albany Thursday evening demonstrates the recidivism that often plagues youth crime. On June 24th, a 15-year-old had been arrested after firing shots at a passing car in Watervliet. Then on June 28th, Watervliet Police say the same youth accidentally shot himself.
That same teen was arrested again Thursday in Albany – this time for gun possession. And when responding to the arrest, two Albany police SUV's crashed into one another, hitting city resident Daryo Santiago's two vehicles. Santiago posted video of the aftermath on Facebook. "I got woken up out my sleep to the craziest car crash on Earth bro to come outside to look and see my Mustang and my work car smoked," he said.
Santiago posted Friday afternoon that he has not heard back from APD regarding damages done to his vehicles.
Three officers were hurt in the crash.
Albany police chief Brendan Cox was not available for comment.
At Thursday night's joint committee meeting, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said the recent spate of teen crime has been testing the region’s law enforcement.
"Our involvement primarily is chasing young kids with deadly weapons around the streets of the county, and our major involvement actually would be running these kids around to different detention facilities throughout. Can't even say upstate anymore, because we're taking them out west. We're taking them down south," Apple said.
