ALBANY — Reginald Graham pulled his 9-year-old grandson, Noah, to the ground and began crawling furiously to the back of his Second Avenue barbershop as bullets ripped through the building Saturday afternoon.
As Graham tried to get his grandson to safety, one of his employees, Tyrone Staley, 47, lay on the ground bleeding from fatal gunshot wounds to his shoulder and torso. Graham’s grandson suffered a graze wound. A 19-year-old was shot in the foot.
Staley was the sole fatality as 10 people were victims in five shootings across the city over the weekend. A second child was also shot just hours after Graham’s grandson, the third child struck by a bullet in the city in the last month.
“I had to watch my friend die,” Graham said Monday.
The gunfire was so heavy Graham believes it came from automatic weapons.
“The shots just kept coming. I thought it was an invasion. I thought they were coming inside,” he said.
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Graham, a pastor at Riverview Missionary Baptist Church in Coeymans, has run the shop there for more than two decades. The shop has a Bible in the window and plays Gospel music. Graham said he made a point to keep the shop a safe and positive place for the neighborhood — no cursing, no smoking marijuana and no negativity.
“People know what it’s about, that’s why they come here,” he said.
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