Worry over weekend crime in Albany

  A Halloween weekend of street crime, including one homicide in the shadow of the Governor's Mansion, has one Albany neighborhood group calling an emergency meeting tonight to confront Albany Police.

  A spokesman for the Mansion Neighborhood Association says the group will meet in emergency session tonight at 630 in the Mansion Hill Restaurant on Phillips Street.

  Albany Police say a Staten Island man was found murdered Saturday afternoon in an Eagle Street basement apartment just doors from the Governor's Mansion where on Saturday the Governor and Mrs. Paterson were handing out Halloween candy.

  In addition to that murder neighbors became increasingly concerned after another homicide on Grand Street a few weeks ago.

  But over the weekend Albany Police had to also deal with a Halloween night brawl under the Henry Johnson Boulevard viaduct in which a teenager was stabbed and shot and survived his injuries.

  On Judson Street that same day Police say a moving car was shot at three times by an unknown gunman.

  Early Halloween morning,around 1:15a.m. a 49 year old man was stabbed four times in the back on Phillips Street in the Mansion neighborhood.

  And there was also an attempted knife point robbery on Friday evening on Garden Street in which a victim was punched in the face.

  The incidents took place a day or two after 25 suspected South End gang members were swept up in a Federal investigation.  Many hoped the arrests would reduce some of Albany's crime at least for a short period.

  But Third Ward Common Council candidate Ron Bailey says this kind of crime spree puts additional pressure on the Albany Police force, especially at a time when there is no Police Chief.

  Department spokesman Det. Jim Miller says other than the homicide,the other crimes this weekend were related to Halloween.

   So far no one has been arrested in connection with the Eagle Street homicide or for any of the other weekend incidents.