“You’ll Have To Kill Me Running.”
Fugitive Wounded Critically By Police in Albany Chase
The Knickerbocker News, Albany, New York
July 18, 1959
Cut down by police bullets while, police said, he was resisting arrest, a 25-year-old South End resident was in critical condition this morning in Albany Hospital.
“You’ll have to kill me running,” William Brown, of 46 Division St. told two policemen who were questioning him last night on the street. Then he fled with police in
Pursuit.
Brown suffered bullet wounds in his abdomen, left foot, and thigh.
The two officers were Patrolmen Melvin Weaver and John Sheldon. Weaver was off duty, and Sheldon was the uniformed man assigned to patrol the Madison Avenue- Green St. area.
Police fired about eight shots, according to bystanders who watched the chase down the streets of the thickly-populated area.
Visited Bars
Here’s the way Acting Police Chief Anthony Dean reconstructed the story:
Brown and a friend, Leamon Grady, visited a number of bars in the South End early last nigh, and then rode Grady’s car to the Arbor Hill section. There, Grady told Brown he was driving back to the South End.
Then, Grady told police, Brown pulled a knife on him, pressed it to the back of his neck, and told him to return to the South End. Grady complied, and Brown left the car near Green St. and Madison Ave.
“He threatened to kill me,” Grady told officers, as he showed them cut marks at the back of his neck.
Then, Grady noticed two policemen on duty at Green St. and Madison Ave. He told them he had been threatened. So the police and Grady approached Brown who was walking down Green St. The police told Brown they would have to take him to headquarters for questioning.
Tries to Hide
Brown raced south on Green St. to Herkimer St. and then west on Herkimer to Franklin St. He paused to hide behind bushes in a vacant lot, but policemen spotted him, and the chase resumed in the narrow South End streets.
This time, police used bullets as they shouted for him to stop. Finally, at Herkimer and Franklin Sts., Brown collapsed in a pool of blood. He was taken to Albany Hospital.
One bullet entered Pete’s Grill at Green and Herkimer Sts., missing a patron by about a foot. The bullet lodged above the barroom mirror.
Scores of neighbors rushed from their homes after the outbreak, then milled about the two patrolmen. Police sent reinforcements to avert further outbreaks.
Residents of the area were critical of the police action. However, departmental authorities said this morning no censure was planned against the two young policemen.
The police officers understood Brown had threatened to kill a man, and didn’t take chances with him, they said.
Dean said charges awaiting Brown upon his discharge from the hospital include first degree assault on complaint of Grady; second degree assault on complaint of patrolman, and resisting arrest.