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ADDU: Car damage is arson

• Several drug unit vehicles were damaged in a Sunday attack, officials say.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Four of the Albany-Dougherty Drug Unit’s vehicles were damaged after someone threw multiple molotov cocktails into the headquarters’ Pine Avenue parking lot Sunday night.

A 1993 Buick LeSabre was destroyed in attack at 9 p.m. Sunday, ADDU Director Major Derrell Smith said Monday. The car was damaged after someone tossed the mololtov cocktail over the fence, which ignited the vehicle and burned hot enough to melt some of the parking lot’s asphalt, he said.

“We had somebody working. They just happened to go outside and saw one of the cars on fire,” Smith said.

One of the damaged vehicles was a marked car and the other two were undercover vehicles, Smith said. Those three will need repair work done before they can be used again, he said.

Smith estimated the damage between $2,000-$5,000.

While the ADDU had received threats before the incident, there weren’t “any more than normal,” Smith said.

“In our line of business, it’s somebody’s retaliating against something,” he said about Sunday’s attack. “We’ve struck a nerve somewhere, but we will continue doing what we do.

“It just goes to show you, when you make a living putting these drug dealers in jail, you just never know (what might happen).”

Albany Police Department spokeswoman Phyllis Banks-Whitley said there are no suspects in the investigation, but police are speaking with witnesses and area residents to try and flush out some information.

The APD and Albany Fire Department are working jointly in the investigation, Deputy Fire Chief David Eddins said.

“We’re just trying to track something down. We’re still in the initial stages (of the investigation),” he said.

Anyone with information can call CrimeStoppers at (229) 436-TIPS to leave an anonymous tip, or investigators at (229) 431-3288.

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