Eight people are suing the Albany Police Department over a noise complaint call in May 2025 that led to multiple arrests and hospitalizations.
The lawsuit alleges that two APD officers—identified only as “Officer Fitzgerald” and “Officer Myers”— illegally arrested three cookout attendees and used “disproportionate and malicious” force against all eight. Other, unnamed police officers allegedly stood by without interfering.
The plaintiffs also alleged that the officers’ actions “appeared, at least in part, to be racially motivated.” In cellphone video posted to Facebook, the responding officers appear to be white.
“The acts of the defendant officers were totally unwarranted,” the lawsuit says. “The plaintiffs, all of African American descent, were physically assaulted, placed in fear of serious physical injury as a result of the actions committed by the defendants, and subjected to the fear and distress as a result of the same.”
The plaintiffs are seeking “damages of no less than” $5 million.
An APD spokesperson declined to comment, citing a practice against discussing ongoing litigation.
The plaintiffs are being represented by Jasper Mills, a former Albany County prosecutor turned defense attorney who is facing criminal charges for sharing confidential witness information in an unrelated homicide trial.
Mills has not responded to a request for comment regarding the Albany incident.
The alleged police misconduct followed a noise complaint about a Mother’s Day cookout on Washington Avenue in 2025.
Officers arrived at the party “at least 15 minutes” after the DJ had turned off the music, according to the lawsuit. They then ordered Rasheen Koonce, who lives at the house, to come out and show ID.
Koonce, a plaintiff in the case, asked officers why he needed to show ID and then walked back into his home after they didn’t answer. Fitzgerald grabbed Koonce, who shook the arm off. The officers then grabbed Koonce again and arrested him.
Cellphone video posted to Facebook shows bystanders confronting the officers and questioning the validity of Koonce’s arrest as he is put into the back of a police car. Some of the bystanders can be heard yelling insults at the officers, and one dared Myers to use the mace he can be seen holding. After some officers left the scene with Koonce in the backseat, the corner of the video frame shows an officer throwing a bystander to the ground as others continued to confront the remaining officers.
The lawsuit alleges police then tackled Koonce’s brother, who is developmentally disabled, into a table of DJ equipment and arrested him. That brother, James Koonce, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Channing Koonce, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and a cousin of Rasheen Koonce, wrote in a Facebook post the day after the incident that James Koonce had a “severe episode” after seeing his brother arrested. Channing Koonce wrote they tried to explain James Koonce’s disability to the officers when they started “indiscriminately macing anyone who tried to speak to them.”
“This act of brutality sent shockwaves through my family, and we were understandably outraged,” Channing Koonce wrote in the post.
According to the lawsuit, Myers allegedly used mace on at least five bystanders, all of whom were named as plaintiffs. Four were treated at the hospital for injuries allegedly sustained by being maced, including one who was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Channing Koonce wrote that he was among the injured and that his eyesight had not returned to normal by the time he posted the next day.
Officers arrested another bystander as she ran away from the mace, according to the lawsuit. Myers allegedly called her a “gay b----” while tackling her and was “laughing at her every time that she asked for an ice pack to treat her injuries.”
“The disregard for human life and the escalation of a peaceful gathering into a scene of violence and chaos is something that has deeply affected all of us,” Channing Koonce wrote in his Facebook post. “The trust we once had in law enforcement has been shattered, replaced by a sense of betrayal and anger. It's hard to comprehend how officers sworn to protect and serve could act with such blatant disregard for the well-being of the people they are supposed to safeguard.”
Rasheen Koonce was booked on unspecified charges and released. One of the bystanders was charged with unspecified non-criminal violations.
