COMMUNITY BBQ
Event helps bring neighborhood together after shooting in Troy
TROY, N.Y. » Residents of the North Central neighborhood had an event Friday afternoon in an effort to bring the community together after a recent officer-involved shooting.
Dahmeek McDonald, 22, was wanted as a parole absconder, according to police, when he was confronted by officers about 6:40 p.m. Aug. 15 as he sat in his vehicle on 8th Street. Police have said McDonald was shot once in the shoulder, with another bullet grazing his head, by Officer Jarad Iler. Police have released few other details about the confrontation. McDonald was hospitalized, but is expected to recover.
The shooting sparked outrage in the neighborhood around the scene, with about 100 people marching from the site to City Hall the day after the shooting. After meeting with Troy Mayor Patrick Madden, though, Messiah Cooper, McDonald’s uncle and leader of the protest, urged patience while the process has a chance to run its course. He also challenged the community to help address a problem city officials have admitted to for several years — a lack of blacks and other minorities on the police force.
Instead of hosting another march to City Hall on Friday, Cooper and others decided to instead host a barbecue, as a way to bring the community together in a peaceful manner.
“My intention was to march to City Hall again today, but I met with city officials yesterday and I’ve come to the same conclusion that I’ve always
drawn: that they are untrustworthy, their word don’t mean nothing, they don’t stand by nothing but they expect my people [to abide] by their laws...,” Cooper said on Friday afternoon in 10th Street Park. “I hope to bring my people closer and let them realize the glory of God; meaning truth, meaning we must stand together — one mind, one body — for each other.”
Cooper also said he wanted to host the barbecue as a way to ask for donations to go towards building a community center in the neighborhood.
“The dinners that will be sold to adults are $7 and fish dinners are $8. All the money that’s raised will go into the foundation that I started because, like I told city officials, we will raise money for our own community center because we’ve been waiting for them to do it for over 40 years now,” explained Cooper.
City police recently announced that they are seeking assistance from the FBI in investigating this particular officer-involved shooting in the city’s North Central neighborhood.
Iler, a five-year veteran of the force with an ex- emplary service record, was notified, along with other patrol officers, by state parole officials at the start of their shift that they were looking for McDonald and were provided with a vehicle description and partial license plate number and said the vehicle had been located on 8th Street, police Chief John Tedesco said last week, Several other officers were also on the scene as the incident unfolded, with a total of four officers placed on administrative leave while the investigation goes on.
“I have no trust in the investigation under Chief Tedesco and Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove. We believe that Abelove should recuse himself from this case,” said Cooper.
Members from the Troy African American Pastoral Alliance were also in attendance for the community barbecue and they wanted to show their support for members of the community.
“We would like for there to be more policing with the officers getting out of their units and being amongst the streets with the people, communicating with the people and not just riding by and taking them down, and we as the pastors are here to support this,” said Pastor Charles Burkes of the United Ordained Church.