Albany Chamber holds public safety talk with law enforcement officials just hours before shooting in Albany

ALBANY –  Dougherty County Sheriff Terron Hayes and Albany Police Chief Michael Persley joined Interim Albany Chamber of Commerce CEO Matt Reed for a community conversation on public safety Tuesday. 

This conversation, which was the Albany Chamber’s annual State of the Community event, came just three days after a fatal shooting at an Albany event center and just two hours before a shooting outside of a convenience store on Slappey Boulevard. Hayes and Persley talked about community policing, mental health support and youth engagement, but gun violence in Albany was not a part of the discussion, and some local leaders said they felt that the elephant in the room was ignored. 

Persley and Hayes talked about negative and often false perceptions of crime in Albany and Dougherty County. Persley shared 2024 data that show violent crime decreased by 16% and property crime by 13% since 2023. However, he said the Albany community has a perception challenge that emphasizes the bad instead of celebrating the good. 

“If your car is broken into, you don’t feel safe,” Persley said. “If someone you know was involved in any kind of altercation, you don’t feel safe. We get caught up in a perception of fear. The more that we invest in our community, the more positive discussions. That’s a way of minimizing the perception of fear.” 

Both law enforcement leaders talked about positive initiatives they’ve helped develop to better serve their communities. Together, they formed the Albany Dougherty Youth Unit, which mentors some 100 kids on a weekly basis and conducts programming to engage with students. 

Since taking office in January, Hayes helped form a Mental Health Advisory Board that’s made up of stakeholders from all corners of the community to present resources for inmates with mental health problems. He said more than 30% of the Dougherty Jail inmate population has mental health challenges. 

“That Mental Health Advisory Board is the conduit to help our inmates as well as their family to navigate what services they need when they get out,” Hayes said. “It’s being able to have people … to guide them … so that they won’t make those mistakes of committing crime and coming back to jail, increasing the recidivism.”

These meetings are held monthly, Hayes said. He called for more people to join, especially business owners to aid in finding employment for some of the people they help. He said he’s working with state organizations to implement a permanent program that helps former inmates with mental health issues to receive work skill training and employment. 

Albany’s Police Department started a co-response partnership with Aspire Behavioral Health, launching REACH, which stands for Responding Engaging and Cultivating Hope, in 2022. Aspire supplies a trained clinician and APD supplies an officer to respond to mental health calls that are nonviolent. 

Persley said the REACH team responds to calls about five times a day. 

“It lessens the chance of fatal encounters with police,” he said. “We still have a 95% rate that folks don’t go to jail. They get diverted away from the location … they either go to Aspire … the doctor … the hospital.” 

APD also has increased its team of Community Safety Officers who respond to nonviolent calls and provide other public assistance. 

“They don’t arrest people, and they don’t write citations, so they’re not confrontational,” Persley said. “A lot of times that does a whole lot better with folks in the community.”

Several local elected officials attended the State of the Community talk, including Ward VI Albany City Commissioner Diana Brown, who said she appreciated the emphasis on addressing mental health among other key policing strategies. 

“It was an amazing event … and then right after we had a shooting on Slappey,” Brown said. “I think we need more of these conversations … focus on key points … and find the answers … because it’s out of hand now.” 

She said she felt that a conversation about gun violence was missing Tuesday, especially after recent shooting incidents.

Rasheed Moore, a 24-year-old was shot and killed early Saturday on the 100 block of North Mock Road outside Spotless Nightclub. 

This shooting, which occurred at about 4:30 a.m., sparked conversations about enforcing earlier closing times for nightclubs or bars, as Persley said these businesses have repeated instances of gun violence. He also urged these business owners to hire security and enforce rules like prohibiting illegal substances and the carrying of weapons on the premises. 

APD officers responded to another shooting on the outside of the Whistle Stop Food Mart on the 700 block of Slappey Boulevard, at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Marcus Newberry, the 66-year-old shooter, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm during certain crimes. The 42-year-old victim, Gregory Hightower, is in critical condition at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.

“How do we build stronger communities and try to navigate some of this gun violence?” Brown said. “This gun violence is in the hands of our youth. We need to speak more about gun violence.” 

Tracy Taylor, the president of the Albany/Dougherty NAACP, said city and county officials are often silent after instances of gun violence in the community. He urged law enforcement and other community leaders to come together and bring real-world solutions.

“It’s aggravating, and it is frustrating,” he said. “I have been engaged with this issue in the community on all levels through Stop the Violence, raising money for gun violence victims’ families, protesting … for almost 14 years. It’s like, when is it going to stop?”

Taylor said crime in Albany and Dougherty County is a real issue, not just perception. Taylor said his daughter began her freshman year at Albany State University this week. He said he still feels nervous after the shooting incident that occurred at ASU during its 2024 Homecoming weekend, where five people were shot and one person killed.

“As a parent, it’s still alarming,” he said. “I had to tell my daughter, you know, how to move around campus, how to interact with fellow students. I’m hoping to see some real changes.” 

Last year’s homecoming shooting was not discussed at the State of the Community conversation, despite being held on ASU’s campus. 

Robert Scott, ASU’s new president, opened the event, noting that ASU welcomed one of its largest freshman classes during the week of Aug. 4. 

“I got a chance to interact with parents and students, and with all the excitement, all the promise of what the future could be, there was one question that resonated and was asked of every parent who I met, and that question was, ‘Will my baby be safe?’” Scott said. “It’s impossible for someone to learn if they don’t feel safe. It’s impossible for a faculty member to teach if they don’t feel safe. It’s impossible for a staff member to show up every day at work if they don’t feel safe.”

Scott said creating a safe environment on campus is the cornerstone of the work ASU does. 

Taylor said NAACP groups from across southwest Georgia are still working together to brainstorm ways to address gun violence in their respective communities.

“We are actively working on a plan to see how we can be a stronger voice for our city police and our local government as well,” he said. 

Hayes said local law enforcement is doing all they can to address crime while also facing challenges with manpower and money.

“We’ve got to have men and women out here to do the job, but we also have to have the current and most up-to-date equipment to do the job effectively,” he said. “It’s a bad day when the criminals have better technology than the police. It’s a bad day when the community sees things happening on a regular basis, and we’re not able to address it because we don’t have the manpower to do so.”

He said the Sheriff’s Department and APD are working together to make Albany a safer community.

APD is offering a $2,000 award for information on Moore’s murder. After the event, Persley told The Albany Herald that people coming forward with information helps them solve these cases. Tips can be submitted using the APD App: (229) 431-2100 or Crime Stoppers at (229) 436-TIPS.