https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Details-scarce-on-Albany-man-killed-by-police-13024292.php
Friend describes Albany man killed by police after stabbing
Published 2:18 pm, Monday, June 25, 2018
Neighbor speaks about police involved shooting at 61 Partridge Street, Albany, NY.
Media: Times UnionSome of the first details emerged Monday about the man who Albany police shot and killed after he stabbed his mother and his uncle inside a Partridge Street home on Friday night.
Conversations with neighbors and childhood friends painted the picture of 20-year-old Schuyler Lake as a quiet man who loved cars and kept to himself.
Derek Gonzalez, who described himself as Lake’s best friend in high school, said Lake was the most subdued person he had ever met.
“I always encouraged him to speak out and have his own voice because he was so shy and quiet,” he said. “If he didn’t know you, he wouldn’t say a word to you.”
Gonzalez said they became inseparable while living in the same Watervliet apartment complex. The two rode their bikes for hours at a time and, when they got older, would borrow Lake’s mother’s car to go for rides, Gonzalez said.
“It was like I was the mouthpiece and he was the brains,” he said.
Gonzalez said he and Lake lost touch about a year after high school. The last he knew, Lake had been saving up to buy a BMW.
Lake’s mother worked long hours as a nurse but the two had always gotten along, Gonzalez said. He believed Lake’s father worked as a car mechanic, but that he wasn’t around when Lake was growing up.
Nothing in his understanding of Lake’s past would explain what might cause him stab his mother and his uncle, Gonzalez said.
“I just want people to know that he was a smart, good kid and whatever happened on his last few moments, know he wasn’t in his right state of mind,” Gonzalez said.
Albany police said they had no new details to share Monday. Officers responded to 61 Partridge St. around 11:30 p.m. Friday night for a report of a person with a weapon.
Albany patrol officers shot and killed a man as he stabbed a woman late Friday night.
Media: Times UnionWhen they arrived, they found Lake’s 52-year-old mother unconscious at the foot of the stairs inside, suffering from multiple stab wounds.
Police said as they tried to break down the locked door to help her, Lake appeared at the top of the stairs holding a knife, then walked down the stairs and began to stab his mother again.
Officers broke the glass of the door and fired several shots, killing Lake after he ignored repeated commands to drop the knife. When they went inside the second-floor apartment, they found Lake’s 55-year-old uncle with stab wounds. Both victims were in critical but stable condition at Albany Medical Center Hospital on Monday.
Monday morning, a next-door neighbor said he would occasionally see Lake out on his second-floor balcony.
“He never caused any trouble,” he said. “This is a quiet neighborhood.”
