Federal judge dismisses lawsuit from family of Jamesville teen shot, killed by police

Syracuse, N.Y. — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed a trooper wrongfully shot and killed a Jamesville teenager four years ago.

U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino ruled last week that the trooper, Corey Fike, had acted within the law when he was one of several police officers who shot Judson Albahm in March 2021.

D’Agostino said the officers were justified in shooting Judson, 17, since he pointed a pellet gun at them twice. The gun closely resembled a Glock semiautomatic pistol.

“Although [Judson’s] apparent weapon was only a pellet gun, it appeared to be a deadly firearm,“ the judge said in a 26-page decision. ”[Judson] pointed the pellet gun at the officers as if to shoot, even after being repeatedly instructed to drop the weapon and attempts to de-escalate the situation failed.”

Judson’s family filed the lawsuit in 2022 and originally named numerous defendants, including Onondaga County and three other police officers. They agreed last year to drop all of them, except for Fike.

The family argued in court papers that Fike did not follow State Police policy, leading to the teen’s death.

D’Agostino said that argument did not consider Judson’s actions.

“The record evidence does not show that strict adherence to the Members Manual or Field Operations Guide would have prevented [Judson] from raising his gun and subsequently being shot,” she said. “The record evidence does show that [Fike] discharged his service weapon only after [Judson] raised his weapon.”

Fike, two DeWitt police officers and a sheriff’s deputy helped search for Judson near the family’s Jamesville home on March 4, 2021, after the teen’s mother called police because her son was having a mental health crisis.

The teen had been treated at the psychiatric program at St. Joseph’s Hospital, but had been released. He fled from his home after a mobile psychiatric unit arrived to take him back to the hospital.

The officers found Judson a short time later in a parking lot behind a county transportation department facility. They attempted to calm him down and convince him to drop his weapon. He said he wanted to be left alone and walked away.

Judson’s mother later told Fike that her son had an airsoft gun with him. Fike did not pass that information along to the other responding officers.

The officers encountered Judson some time later in a wooded area as they searched for him. He raised his gun at them, and the officers fired their weapons at him.

The initial shots knocked Judson to the ground, but he sat up and raised his gun again at the officers. The officers fired again at him.

The state Attorney General’s Office investigated the shooting and ruled in May 2022 that it was justified.