Parade of hearses will highlight double-digit homicides in Albany in 2023

ALBANY — This will not be your typical holiday parade. Although a planned Tuesday procession will feature flashing lights and a lineup of cars, the main attraction will be 21 hearses taking a route through some of Albany’s most violent neighborhoods on its way downtown.

The purpose of the unconventional procession, which will include first responders, is to highlight violent crime and its impact on the community.

Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler has invited area church ministers and the public to gather for a program at the Government Center at about 2:40 p.m. on Tuesday when the hearses arrive at their destination.

The number of hearses corresponds to the 20 homicide victims slain so far in 2023, plus one for Nigel Brown, a 9-year-old who was slain in his bed during an Aug. 8, 2021, nighttime drive-by shooting in which he was an unintended victim. Each hearse will bear the name of one of the victims.

The last such procession was held in 2017, and about 400 people attended, the coroner, who is also a minister, said on Tuesday.

“The big impact was riding down the road with all those lights on, bringing awareness to the city,” he said.

In a letter to ministers, Fowler said, “This has to stop. But the only way it stops is by us working together. We cannot just talk about it.”

The procession will pass through parts of east and south Albany, and will include areas that have been the scene of multiple slayings, before making its way on Oakridge Drive to Slappey Boulevard and then turn onto Pine Avenue to reach the Government Center.

Of the 20 2023 slayings in the city through Tuesday, 19 were black-on-black violence and nearly all were committed with firearms, the coroner said.

“We’re going to remember Nigel Brown, too, because his homicide has never been solved,” Fowler said.

Reaching the young people who are behind the preponderance of the violent crime is going to be a challenge, the Rev. Donny Green Sr., pastor at Bible Way Missionary Baptist Church in Albany, said. One reason, he noted, is that those the ministers are seeking to reach are not among those who are in the pews on Sunday.

“The only time they come in the church pews is when their friends get killed,” Green said. “Last Sunday, we had a young man come in (when) he was upset about one of his friends that got killed.

“The only Jesus they see is the Jesus they see in us, and we don’t always show that care for them.”

The youth of today are also being influenced by what they see on social media as well, and often are tuned out of other influences and sources of information, the pastor said.

“(They’re on) Tik Tok and all the other stuff, and that has made our kids want to be hard,” Green said. “But they’re not hard, so they play this (gun violence) out. Kids are not watching TV; they’re not even watching the news.”

The minister said that he makes it a point to engage young people when he has the opportunity.

“I ask them questions: How can we turn this thing around with gun violence?” he said. “I ask them questions about guns: Can the government do something about guns? They say ‘We can get guns.’

“The answer’s in these young ones who are actually out there doing it. The answers are there. They’ve got to be the ones who can turn it around.”

In the past, the Albany Police Department has said that of every reported car break-in, nearly one-quarter — 24% — involves the theft of a firearm, which is one way that guns make it into the hands of young people and gang members. That number is similar to the national average, meaning a combined large number of stolen weapons is available.

Despite those hurdles, Green said he thinks it is possible to reduce violent crime and homicides in the city.

“The key is the ministers, the churches, not just the black church, the white churches, too; we’ve got to all come together,” he said. “We’ve got to come together to turn this thing.”

Referencing a recent tour of a distressed south Albany neighborhood, the minister said that often officials make a show and announce an initiative but fail to follow through.

“We start things, and we don’t ever finish it,” he said. “We need to finish. When you never finish, you don’t solve the problem. If we start one thing and stick with it, we’ll finish it and then we can move on to the next thing and the next thing.”

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