In violence, echoes of old gang rivalries
The record-breaking pace of homicides here and across the Hudson River in Albany has police examining whether the remnants of two rival gangs are renewing the street violence they were known for starting years ago, law enforcement officials familiar with the recent investigations said.
The 15 homicides in Albany and the 13 killings in Troy, while not all gang-related, have investigators looking at the old feud between the Young Gunnerz of Troy and the Uptown gang in Albany, authorities said.
The Young Gunnerz popped back into the equation with the Sept. 13 drive-by fatal shooting of 11-year-old Ayshawn Davis in front of 2266 Old Sixth Ave. in the heart of the gang ’s old turf, which was a center of
heroin and cocaine dealing, sources said.
The child’s death has renewed attention on the burgeoning street violence. Ayshawn’s burial service was held Monday in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Troy.
It’s been quiet for the past five years in the Old Sixth Avenue section of Troy after a state organized crime task force cracked the Young Gunnerz apart in 2015 and its alleged leader, Daquan Murray, was sent to state prison for a 10-year term.
The state attorney general’s office led Operation Trojan Horse, which targeted the Young Gunnerz and resulted in 21 arrests. Authorities said the gang was the major supplier of cocaine, heroin and illegal prescription drugs in Troy.
The remaining gang associates are not well organized, according to sources who asked not to be named due to the ongoing nature of the investigations. They said it is difficult to cite specific evidence that organized gang activity is fueling most of the recent violence.
The law enforcement sources in Albany and Rensselaer counties did say that those in question are not necessarily living in what would be viewed as Albany's West Hill neighborhood, where the Uptown gang was once based, or the Young Gunnerz’s Old Sixth Avenue haunts.
Rather, suspects involved in recent shootings in Troy now can be found living across the river in the cities of Cohoes and Watervliet.
Jahquay Brown, 20, of 324 Saratoga St., Cohoes, was charged Thursday with second-degree murder in Ayshawn’s killing. Law enforcement sources confirmed that a second suspect is wanted.
Brown was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Troy City Court on Tuesday, but a Rensselaer County grand jury is expected to take action. Brown asked for protection when he was sent to the Rensselaer County jail without bail following his arraignment last week.
Police sources said Brown has been in Cohoes for four years and comes from Albany. The sources said Brown’s head was grazed by a bullet a year ago in an Albany shooting that sent him to the hospital for a few days.
It's difficult to ascertain the impact of gang influence in the latest Capital Region shootings because of a lack of in-depth studies of the issue, said Alice Green, the executive director of the Center for Law and Justice and chair of the Albany County Zero Youth Detention Task Force.
“We don't have any hard evidence of what's going on,” Green said. “We don't know what is causing the problem.”
Green pointed to the influence of systemic racism on socioeconomic conditions — poverty, inadequate housing and a lack of basic services in the cities' poorest neighborhoods, she said.
A deep, thorough study of the issues is needed to begin to deal with the problems at the root of the violence plaguing these neighborhoods, Green said.