Between Saturday and Monday nights, the Albany Police Department investigated four shootings across the city.


What You Need To Know


  • The Albany Police Department investigated four shootings between Saturday and Monday evenings.

  • As of Monday evening officers had made one arrest involving a Saturday night incident near the intersection of Madison Avenue and Lark Street.

  • The incidents are not believed to be related but Police Chief Eric Hawkins says the rise in violence is part of a national trend coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s unsettling to have any violence and certainly shooting violence like that,” Albany Police Department Chief Eric Hawkins said Tuesday morning.

So far officers have made only one arrest involving Saturday night’s incident near the intersection of Madison and Lark.

“They are all independent incidents, there are no links between them,” Hawkins said. “We have identified the individuals for the most part who are involved in this so that is a positive force.”

The four shootings did not result in any fatalities. Hawkins says it’s part of a months-long spike in violence coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic.

“This post-COVID spike in violence has been seen in many communities across our country,” Hawkins said. “That does not excuse it here and it does not make us feel any better but we understand and we understand some of the things that are fueling this.”

Hawkins and other law enforcement leaders theorize that because of social distancing and stay-at-home measures, police have had less direct contact with people in the communities they serve, creating a vacuum.

“Some of these individuals saw opportunities and saw opportunities to get involved in some of this antisocial behavior,” the chief said.

“There is definitely a concern,” community activist Dannielle Hille said. “Going into summer we do not want this to continue and we don’t want to have a year like we had in 2018.”

Hille is the founder of A Block At A Time, an organization that works to improve relationships between the community and Albany officials. Even before the weekend violence, the group planned an online forum about law enforcement after the pandemic with Hawkins, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple and District Attorney David Soares.

“I think it is necessary because we don’t want to lose the momentum that we have gained,” Hille said. “I don’t think anybody wants to go backwards.”

Both Hille and Hawkins say they’re hopeful that as the city starts to open back up, community and police leaders will have an easier time fostering the relationships they’ve spent years building.

”As we start to see more of that coming back, we are going to see some better outcomes in terms of activity in our community,” Hawkins said. “I am very confident and very, very optimistic going forward.”

“The worst case scenario is that we end up as disconnected as we were before we started working together,” Hille said.