Bullying, bleach attack alleged at library | Crime

ALBANY - City detectives are searching for a girl who sprayed a teenage boy's face with a substance that may have been bleach.

The incident took place Friday afternoon outside the Albany Public Library branch on Henry Johnson Boulevard.

Police believe the victim will regain his full eyesight.

On Wednesday night police were busy reviewing all library surveillance video, determined to identify the suspect and haul her into custody.

The victim, a 10th grader at Green Tech Charter High School, and a friend were in the library's teen section on Friday when two girls approached them and began mocking his appearance.

"First they made fun of his clothes. Then they proceeded to make fun of some of his facial features, " said Jim Miller, Albany Police spokesman.

One of the suspects then began taking pictures of the victim with her cell phone camera, but the boy knocked the phone away onto the floor. A librarian who heard the commotion then kicked the girls out.

When the victim and his friend left a short time later, the girls were waiting for them outside, wielding a plastic Mountain Dew Soda bottle, which they began spraying in the boy's face.

"What we know right now is that it was bleach in the bottle," said Miller. "How they were carrying around bleach or for what purpose, we don't know yet. Or whether it was some other substance."

"In general, kids know that it's a library and they're pretty well behaved," said Carol Nersinger, executive director of the Albany Public Library. "This is the absolute exception. This is at the extreme end of the exception and very, very unfortunate."

"The problems are coming from the streets into the facility, not from the facility into the street," said Marlon Anderson, a community advocate who says he's appalled by what happened but not necessarily surprised, given the street culture he's experienced while growing up in Arbor Hill.

"Any time that somebody can reach that level of violence, anywhere, that's an exception, but we have too many exceptions in this community. We can't let it become the rule," Anderson said.

Wednesday happened to be the victim's 16th birthday. Fortunately, police don't believe his injuries will be permanent, despite suffering temporary blindness in the attack.

If and when the suspect is caught she's looking at a felony -- assault with a weapon and intent to cause physical harm.