Times Union – Kenneth C. Crowe II, Steve Hughes – July 31, 2020
The boom of the shotgun blast an off-duty police officer fired to stop another man from stabbing the man’s estranged wife was heard across the north end of the Beman Park neighborhood Thursday night.
The shot killed Colin E. Davis, but it might have saved the woman. Though repeatedly stabbed, she was in stable condition Friday at Albany Medical Center.
“As a human being, I can say that he saved her life. As the district attorney, I’m waiting for the investigation to play out,” Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly said Friday.
Police said Officer Adam Harbour fired the shot that killed the 25-year-old Davis. Harbour intervened Thursday when he heard screaming coming from the second-floor apartment above his first-floor unit on 17th Street, police said.
Police released the identities of Harbour and Davis on Friday. Police have not released the the 25-year-old woman’s name.
Harbour longed to be a police officer and was groomed by the department through an innovative program aimed at identifying potential officers when they are in their teens and 20s.
Harbour was one of the first two members of the Troy Police Cadet Post 4102 to join the force. He was sworn in as an officer in January 2017. The cadet program exposes young men and women from ages 14 to 21 to the operation of local law enforcement. At his swearing in, Harbour said the cadet program encouraged him to pursue his goal of joining the city police department. He graduated from Troy High School and attended Hudson Valley Community College.
A next-door neighbor said when she came home Thursday she saw Davis’ body on the front porch. She covered her 2-year-old’s eyes so the girl would not see the scene. The shotgun was nearby, she said. The woman described Harbour as polite and friendly and a person who always says hello.
The blast startled others near the Hoosick Street end of the block.
Deputy Chief Dan DeWolf said Thursday night that Harbour fired the single round after telling the man “several times” to drop the knife and stop. DeWolf said he believed the shotgun may belong to the officer, but that is being investigated.
Police radio calls starting at about 6:10 p.m. Thursday when responding squad cars first arrived outside the two-story residence.
Several 911 calls were reported to have been made reporting the shotgun blast. The reports said that everyone was on the first floor of the building.
“I’m being told that one of the males that fired the weapon is on the porch,” one officer said. That was followed by a second officer saying that a man was on the porch with his hands up. The woman was described as having stab wounds in her side.
That would have been Harbour standing waiting for the arriving officers. Harbour was not identified in the radio transmissions.
Then came another broadcast saying, “He allegedly shot the other guy with a shotgun.”
The woman was sent to Albany Medical Center, while Harbour went to Samaritan Hospital, which is just a few blocks away from the 17th Street shooting.
“Officer Harbour works the midnight shift, so he is sleeping when most of us are awake. Yesterday evening he had to spring into action out of a sound sleep without hesitation,” said Officer Nick Laviano, president of the Troy Police Benevolent Association, which represents the department’s patrol officers, detectives and sergeants.
“Well, Adam Harbour is a hero and saved that woman’s life. The entire department tips their cap to him,” Laviano said.
“We’re going slow,” Donnelly said about the investigation. The district attorney said her office has briefed the state Attorney General’s Office, which had agents at the scene Thursday night. Donnelly said she is waiting to hear if the attorney general will take over the investigation.
Donnelly and Chief Assistant District Matt Hauf went to the shooting scene. The district attorney’s office requested the state Attorney General to respond under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order to determine if the it would take over the case as special prosecutor. The order calls for the review in a situation where a police officer causes the death of a civilian.
Earlier this year, Cuomo signed legislation that empowers the state attorney general’s office to investigate police misconduct and probe police-involved deaths. The legislation expands on a previous executive order that allowed the attorney general to investigate fatal encounters between unarmed civilians and New York police agencies.
“Both the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s Office and the Troy Police Department have and will continue to coordinate with the Attorney General as they process the incident to determine the applicability of the Executive Order. This is a tragedy that is best handled with transparency and cooperation,” Donnelly said in a statement later Friday. “A thorough investigation will continue as we await the Attorney General’s determination.”
Donnelly said she was glad to see the Troy evidence technicians meticulously collecting evidence Thursday night at the scene.
“We’ll let Troy do a thorough investigation. I want to step back and let the investigation take place,” Donnelly said.
This is the third fatal police shooting in the city since 2015.
Mayor Patrick Madden through a spokesman declined to comment on the investigation, referring calls to the city police while the investigation is ongoing.