Shooting victim recently out of prison
Search continues for pair of suspects in Thursday homicide
TROY>> Police have identified the victim of a fatal Thursday morning shooting near Prospect Park as a Brooklyn man who was recently released from prison.
City police spokesman Captain Daniel DeWolf said Friday that Dezmon T. Smith, 24, was gunned down just after 9 a.m. as he climbed into a taxi in front of a house on 6th Avenue, near the intersection with Hill and Jefferson streets. Smith was rushed to Albany Medical Center, where surgeons were unable to save him.
According to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s website, Smith was released in December from Upstate Correctional Facility in Malone after serving more than two years in prison after being convicted in Albany County for third-degree attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance. DeWolf would not comment specifically on whether the shooting may have been drug- or gang-related, saying only that detectives
are looking at all possible motives, though he said Thursday they believe Smith was specifically targeted.
Based at least in part on surveillance videos of the incident provided by neighbors, police said two black men with facial hair and wearing dark clothing approached Smith as he was getting into a Capitaland Taxi cab about 9:10 a.m. in front of 1042 6th Ave. An argument ensued, police said, before shots rang out and Smith fell into the back seat of the cab. A woman who lives a few
doors up 6th Avenue and did not want her name used said she heard five gunshots, though she did not see the shooting.
DeWolf said the investigation is continuing, with no additional information available, but detectives are asking anyone else in the area whomay have witnessed or recorded the incident to contact them at 270- 4426.
The shooting was the city’s first homicide of 2017 and the first since Javier Gomez, 23, and his cousin, Christian Gonzalez-Hernandez, were killed Oct. 17, the only two local homicides of 2016. Four men have been charged in that case and are being held in the Rensselaer County jail.