ALBANY — The region’s new U.S. attorney will meet with local law enforcement officials Tuesday as they plot ways to combat gun violence.
After meeting at police headquarters, acting U.S. Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon will hold a news conference with local law enforcement officials including Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins to discuss joint efforts to address gun violence. Mayor Kathy Sheehan, who is in quarantine after being around Binghamton Mayor Richard David who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, is expected to hold a separate news briefing.
The Bacon’s meeting with police will take place in the midst of one of the region’s most violent years. More than 100 people have been shot in Albany. The majority of the city’s 16 homicide victims were shot.
In Troy, a city that with a population of 49,374 that is roughly half the size of Albany, the violence has been staggering with 13 homicide victims.
Police said rivalries between gangs in the two cities is partly to blame for some of the violence.
Sources: Old gang rivalries may be tied to some Albany, Troy homicides
Among the cases authorities say could be linked to the rivalries is the the Sept. 13 drive-by shooting that killed 11-year-old Ayshawn Davis in front of 2266 Old Sixth Ave. in the heart of the The Young Gunnerz gang’s old turf that was a center of heroin and cocaine dealing, officials said. Ayshawn was hit with a stray bullet and a Cohoes man was later charged with second-degree murder.
Bacon, formerly an associate deputy attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, was named last month acting U.S. attorney for New York’s Northern District. She is the first woman to hold the post.
Prosecutor noted for white-collar work named U.S. attorney in Albany
She was named U.S. attorney for district which encompasses 32 counties stretching from Kingston to the Canadian border and west to Syracuse, after her predecessor in the position, Grant C. Jaquith, was sworn into his new post as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims.