A 26-year-old Albany man has pleaded guilty to opening fire on a vehicle outside a Madison Avenue bar two years ago, in a case that began with a bar fight and ended with multiple gunshots fired into the night. Lateek Williams admitted to criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and he now faces eight years in state prison.
According to WRGB, Albany County District Attorney Lee C. Kindlon announced the plea, which stems from an altercation between Williams and another man inside The Pub on Madison Avenue on November 2, 2024. During that dispute, Williams flashed a handgun, the station reports.
After the other man left the bar, Williams reportedly spotted him sitting in a car outside and fired multiple rounds at the vehicle before fleeing the scene, per the same report. Remarkably, no one was hit — the shooting caused no injuries, WRGB notes.
Arrest Came a Year After the Shooting
Albany police investigated the case and arrested Williams on November 25, 2025, roughly a year after the shots were fired outside the bar. The station's report does not detail what led to the gap between the shooting and the arrest.
Williams was remanded after entering his guilty plea, the outlet reports. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 15, with a proposed term of eight years in state prison followed by five years of post-release supervision, according to the same account.
What the Weapons Charge Covers
Under New York law, a person is guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree when they possess a loaded firearm, a machine gun, or a disguised gun with intent to use it unlawfully against another person, or when they possess five or more firearms, subject to statutory exceptions, according to the New York State Senate's penal code text. A related provision from the New York State Senate lists certain weapons offenses among Class E violent felonies, though the available statutory text does not spell out how that classification applies to Williams' specific plea agreement.
Part of a Broader Decline in Shootings
The case lands amid a period of reported declines in gun violence across Albany and the state more broadly. New York officials announced in May 2025 that shootings in Albany were down 50 percent compared with the prior year, per the Governor's office. Separately, Albany's 2025 violent-crime figures were reported as lower overall, with some categories falling to their lowest levels since 2019, as reported by WRGB.
State officials have also pointed to a longer statewide trend: through March 2026, the 28 police departments participating in New York's GIVE initiative collectively reported 81 shooting incidents involving injury, down 65 percent from 229 during the same period in 2021, according to the Governor's office. It's not clear from available reporting whether the Williams case figures into those broader statistics, but it adds one more data point to a city where officials have been touting fewer shootings in recent years.
