Investigation continues in Union Street shooting

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

A shooting at a Union Street home sent 3 people to the hospital with gun shot wounds.

SCHENECTADY — Investigators have wrapped up their search of the home on Union Street where two children and their mother were shot on Tuesday.

Schenectady Police Sgt. Matt Dearing said there are still no criminal charges for 47-year-old Deshawn Howard, the suspect for Tuesday’s shooting, as the investigation is ongoing.

The conditions of the 35-year-old female victim and her two children, a 16-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, are still listed as guarded, according to Dearing.

Howard is also still in the hospital and his condition is still listed as guarded.

All of them are being treated in local hospitals.

The identities of all of the victims have not yet been revealed.

Howard was apprehended Tuesday with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound after, police said, he shot the woman and her two children at the home on Union Street.

Police responded to a call of a possible domestic incident on Tuesday around 1 p.m. They were told a woman had been shot.

When they arrived, police said, they found the girl and boy at the intersection of Union Street and Brandywine Avenue with gunshot wounds. They then saw the woman exit the home with wounds as well.

They were all treated by Schenectady Fire Department paramedics.

Police were able to enter the building and took out a 1-year-old male infant child, who, police said, was unharmed.

Howard then fled the scene, according to police, causing them to conduct an hourslong search. It required the assistance of a New York State Police helicopter.

Police eventually tracked down Howard at a Hamilton Hill neighborhood residence on Summit Avenue.

Dearing said Schenectady County Child Protective Services was assisting the 1-year-old child, but said he does not know where he was placed.

Court records showed the woman had an order of protection against Howard stemming from an incident in April. She had told police she feared for her life and the life of her kids after she said Howard attacked and threatened her.

Howard was charged with assault, obstructing governmental administration and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, all of which are misdemeanors.

He was accused of punching the woman with three of her children present in the room, with one of them being 7 years of age.

Police eventually arrested Howard after they found him hiding in the basement of a McClyman Street building. Court records indicate he refused to comply with the officers’ demands to come out, which resulted in him being charged with obstruction.

The woman requested a full stay-away order of protection against Howard following the incident. She told police he was her boyfriend and that he had become increasingly violent, causing her to stay at a friend’s house, according to court records

Other court records showed that Howard had a history of disregarding orders of protection, including two incidents in 2015.

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney confirmed on Wednesday that the woman who was shot on Tuesday was the same person allegedly attacked in April.

Carney said police did obtain a search warrant for the home on Union Street in April to attempt to find a gun she said she had seen Howard with.

A gun was never found by police. It is also unclear if police ever searched the McClyman Street address for the gun.

The case from April is pending, but Howard is due in court on July 16 for the start of a trial, according to Carney.

An unidentified woman was also taken into custody from the Union Street home on Tuesday. Police did not say why she was taken in, but did say she was unharmed.

Dearing said he believed she was released.