Gunfire broke the quiet on Crane Street in the middle of the night, and by sunrise Schenectady police had a 25-year-old man in handcuffs facing a long list of felony and misdemeanor charges. Officers say a 911 caller reported shots fired near 870 Crane Street at about 2:08 a.m. Thursday, and it did not take long for investigators to zero in on a suspect blocks away.
According to WRGB, patrol officers who checked the scene found two spent shell casings in the area. Police said they then used the city's camera system to identify a possible suspect, a detail that quickly turned into an arrest.
Foot Chase Ends on Cutler Street
While checking the 800 block of Cutler Street, officers spotted a man matching the suspect's description, the outlet's report states. Police said the man ran when officers approached, but after a brief foot chase and a short struggle, they took 25-year-old Schenectady resident Alger Scott into custody.
Scott now faces a lengthy rundown of charges stemming from the encounter: criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degrees, criminal use of a firearm in the second degree, first-degree reckless endangerment, fifth- and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree obstruction of governmental administration and resisting arrest. Police also said Scott had an outstanding warrant for assault in the third degree, according to the same report. He was scheduled to be arraigned that morning in Schenectady City Court.
Cameras Play a Growing Role in Schenectady Policing
The Crane Street arrest comes as Schenectady police lean more heavily on technology to track down suspects. The department has been expanding its use of drones, pole cameras and 3D scene scanners, an effort backed by a $650,000 state grant, per the station's reporting. Police Chief Brian Whipple has said the department relies on Axon equipment rather than Flock, telling the outlet, “We are not using Flock, we've never used Flock, we use Axon, we have used Axon for several years.”
Whipple has also said all of the department's drone flights are recorded, adding, “all of our drone flights are recorded so they can see where we are, where we've been.” Not everyone is on board with the buildout. Daniel Schwarz of the New York Civil Liberties Union has criticized the expansion, saying, “Schenectady's move to flood the sky with invasive drones is a privacy nightmare and does little to make residents safer.”
Pattern of Shots-Fired Calls in the Neighborhood
This is not the first time Crane Street has drawn a police response over gunfire. In a separate incident on the morning of July 25, 2025, officers responded to a report of possible shots fired near Crane Street and Fourth Avenue and discovered a shell casing, according to a report from CBS6 Albany; a man fled on foot from a residence on the 800 block of Crane Street and was apprehended a short distance away. In another Crane Street incident, one person was taken into custody on a Tuesday evening after an hours-long search following reports of a fight and shots fired, with officers recovering a handgun, the Daily Gazette reported.
Other shots-fired cases around the city have also ended in arrests. Police arrested 20-year-old Adam Harris on a Tuesday after their GIVE Unit identified him as the suspect in a shots-fired case tied to a Sept. 26 incident near State and Swan streets, according to News10. In a separate Lang Street case, 22-year-old Sincere Germain was identified after officers responded to a report of shots fired in the 500 block of Lang Street around 8:50 p.m., the Daily Gazette reported in another article. Each case stands on its own, but together they show a city where shots-fired calls keep turning into arrests within hours.
