Few clues in city’s latest slaying

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

Friends of Jerome Cannon, who was murdered this past Saturday, console each other at a vigil in front of 901 Lincoln Ave. on Monday.

Playing on the porch stereo on Lincoln Avenue was the voice of Jerome G. Cannon Jr., an aspiring local rap artist, who went by the name Yung Problem.

The music was playing in Cannon’s honor, in advance of a candlelight vigil held to remember the young man, who was gunned down two days earlier only a block away.

“He was a good guy. He was about his music,” friend Frankie Swint said Monday night. He said Cannon was a longtime friend who had worked to improve his life. “He was a good kid. He was probably just going down the wrong street at the wrong time.”

Cannon, 20, of Congress Street, was shot once in the head outside 827 Lincoln Ave. just before 9:30 p.m. Saturday. He was taken to Albany Medical Center, but died Sunday.

Police on Monday had little to go on, spokesman Lt. Brian Kilcullen said.

They didn’t even know Cannon’s name until Sunday, when a family member contacted police believing the victim to be Cannon.

What police do know is that they received a call of shots fired in the area. A group of people on the street scattered when the shots rang out. There were no reports of arguments or fights preceding the shots.

“We haven’t identified any of the parties that were there,” Kilcullen said. “Until we find out the circumstances, I’m not sure we can connect it to anything.”

He said anyone with information is asked to contact police at 788-6566.

The killing is the second this month on Hamilton Hill. Ulysses Cantey was shot and killed as he answered a knock on the door at 933 Albany St. on Sept. 1.

The killing is also the seventh this year in the city, the sixth gunshot death.

City police stepped up their presence in the neighborhood this past spring, bringing in the state police to help with a rash of non-fatal shootings. That presence remains, Kilcullen said. Overall calls for shots fired have remained down, he said.

Nonetheless, neighborhood leaders called a special meeting for 7 p.m. Thursday at Petta’s Restaurant on Duane Avenue.

In addition to rap music, Cannon enjoyed drawing and dancing, family said. His music can be found at www.myspace.com/darksydecrimefamily. He was from Troy originally but moved to Schenectady when he was very young.

Cannon had run into problems with the law in 2004 and 2006, when he was accused of taking part in a break-in at a Crane Street home and ambushing a fried chicken deliveryman, records show. He was sentenced to prison on an attempted burglary conviction.

Swint acknowledged his friend’s time in custody. But he said Cannon was a changed man after getting out.

“Ever since he came back from jail, he was good,” Swint said. “The young kid and older kid were two different things.”