Colonie

Police are investigating a bizarre shooting that they say involved a local landscaper shooting a man five times in an area that borders the City of Albany landfill.

Colonie police said 18-year-old Kyle D. Cross was walking through an undeveloped plot of land around Petra Lane at 9:52 p.m. Saturday when he was shot with a rifle by someone he recognized.

Police said Cross told them the suspect fled on Petra Lane in a landscaping truck.

Cross stumbled to a nearby home on Lincoln Avenue, a neighbor of the suspect.

Resident Valerie Roseberry was awoken by her dog when she heard someone outside yelling for help.

Her son, Robert Rickson, brought Cross inside and the family called 911, Roseberry said.

The victim had been shot in the arm, thigh, buttocks, calf and knee.

He was transported to Albany Medical Center Hospital, where he underwent surgery and is expected to make a full recovery, said Colonie police Lt. Robert Winn. "He's very, very fortunate, if any of those wounds were to the left or right, it would have had very serious implications."

Within 40 minutes of being notified of the incident, police located the landscaping truck and the suspect, 27-year-old Daniel S. Clark, at a Mary Hadge Drive house, Winn said.

Clark, who has been charged with first-degree assault among other charges, was arraigned Sunday morning in Colonie Town Court and sent to the Albany County jail without bail. He is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing in town court at 6 p.m. Monday.

The shooting was "definitely intentional," Winn said, adding that the shooter and victim know each other.

As for motive, Winn said: "We've got some working theories, but nothing I can talk about."

Records indicate Cross lives on Denison Road, not far from the Mary Hadge Drive house.

A person who answered the phone at the Mary Hadge Drive home declined to comment.

The weapon, a .22 caliber rifle designed to look like a military weapon, has not been recovered, Winn said.

Clark's Landscaping says on its website that it has provided lawn care services to residential and commercial customers for more than seven years and that it's a family-owned company.

The investigation is being aided by an Environmental Conservation Police Officer and K-9 that is specially trained in the detection of spent shell casings and firearms, police said.

This is the first shooting resulting in injury this year in the town, according to police.

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