Five are injured and a shooter is on the loose after a tragic incident at a Fourth Street pizzeria early Sunday morning
A five-victim shooting occurred at approximately 12:30 a.m. Sunday in front of Gino’s Pizzeria at 123 Fourth St. in Troy.
Preliminary investigation reveals that one subject on foot fired upon pedestrians outside of the pizzeria. The five victims were all directly struck by the gunfire and the suspect fled on foot.
Police are attempting to learn whether the shooter was inside the pizzeria or if he came on foot from a different location.
No arrests have been made and the shooter is currently on the loose.
Police received multiple calls indicating that numerous people were assaulted in the area. Upon arrival, they found four people down. Two were in the area of 123 Fourth St. and two more near 121 Fourth St. The four victims were transported to Albany Medical Center by EMS, and the fifth was driven in a private vehicle to Albany Memorial Hospital.
The victims were shot in the extremities, and were being treated as of Sunday evening at local hospitals for non-life threatening gunshot injuries. They are all expected to survive.
The victims ranged from ages 18 to 27, three male and two female.
“All five persons who were shot last night are believed to have sustained wounds which they will recover from,” Troy Police Capt. John Cooney said Sunday. “We do see three as very innocent bystanders, but we also see two as people who we have been familiar with.”
Those individuals have been in contact with the police under adverse conditions in the past.
Two individuals may have been a target for the shooter, police said.
“We’ll be looking at them specifically to see if in fact there’s a reason for the shooting based on their presence on Fourth Street this morning,” Cooney said.
Police have recovered ample physical evidence at the scene and will review copious amounts of video from the area of the shooting, Cooney said.
The “pizza block” is typically heavily populated from midnight to 4 a.m. Cooney said the establishment was open and doing “legitimate business” at the time of the incident.
“It’s busy there, but it’s busy there for all the right reasons,” Cooney said.
Broken glass at the pizzeria entrance is from people scrambling to get to safety, he noted.
Police will attempt to see if the incident was gang-related.
“It’s been a public matter that there is some ongoing feuds between those involved in the criminal trade between the cities of Albany and Troy,” Cooney said.
Police are unsure now whether it was a random act or a “result of some type of association or confrontation that’s occurring between groups that may have conflict with each other.”
A nearby employee said the street was extra populated Saturday night as he was leaving work.
“I got out at about 11:30 and the streets were packed,” said James Gerdes, an employee at The Flying Chicken, directly across the street from Gino’s. “Everywhere just seemed really crazy. It was weird.”
Lauren Halligan may be reached at 270-1287.
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