In the early morning hours of July 7, 2018, a large fight on Teunis Street in Albany’s South End turned deadly when 32-year-old Elijah Cancer intervened to mediate and was shot. Cancer, a Black outreach worker with Albany 518 SNUG, had a history that included a prior prison sentence for racketeering and a previous nonfatal shooting 14 years earlier at the same hospital where he was taken after this attack. He was pronounced dead from his wounds; another man was wounded but survived.

Cancer had worked to steer at-risk youth away from violence, drawing on his own experience as a former member of the Original Gangsta Killas. His death while trying to stop a street fight cut short his work in the community. No arrests have been announced, and the killer or killers remain unidentified.

Did anyone in the Albany area witness the altercation on Teunis Street or have information about who fired the shots?