'Community gun' killed Albany girl

The teenager charged with fatally shooting a 10-year-old girl told police he used a community gun – one that everyone in the neighorhood uses – according to the statement he gave to police.

Jermayne Timmons, 15, a student at Albany High School, is being charged as an adult with second-degree murder. He allegedly fired a .45 caliber handgun on May 29 and the bullet traveled a block and struck and killed Kathina Thomas as she played in front of her home.

City police Chief James Tuffey and Mayor Jerry Jennings and Albany County District Attorney David Soares held a news conference this morning to discuss details of the investigation.

Tuffey said the bullet that struck and killed Thomas was intended for someone else. He said Timmons fired at someone in a group that Timmons and his friends had run into. The bullet missed the group and traveled up the street from Judson and First streets before it struck Kathina in the upper torso.

“After I shot and before we started riding away, I saw five or six kids on bikes come riding towards us on Judson,” Timmons said in his statement. “I started riding north to Livingston … and went down a different street. That’s when I heard about four shots. I rode my bike back to 80 Ida Yarborough and put the gun in the garbage can in front. I put the gun back because everyone in the neighborhood uses the gun and that is where we keep it.”

Tuffey said the shooting “struck the nerve of the entire community, and we should take this opportunity to find the necessary solution to why our youth resort to violence.”

Detectives continue to work on the investigation and no further arrests have been made. The gun has not been recovered.

Timmons, of 131 Clinton St., was arraigned Monday night and sent to the Albany County Juvenile Detention facility without bail. A grand jury is expected to convene Friday to consider the case.

Thomas, who moved to Albany from Guyana with her family, was buried Tuesday morning in Graceland Cemetery.