WHAT WE KNOW: A witness says police opened fire, shooting dead a man and wounding a woman after the truck they were in rammed cars on Route 95. The man who was killed was not the person who stole a Rhode Island State Police cruiser earlier Thursday. A manhunt is on for Donald Morgan, 35, in connection with that theft.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A day of chaos sparked by the theft of a state police cruiser early Thursday ended with one man dead, a woman hospitalized, and the man accused of stealing the cruiser still at large.

The events began around 9 a.m., with the report of a stolen state police cruiser. They culminated with Providence and Rhode Island State Police surrounding a white pickup truck, and multiple officers firing into the truck at close range.

According to state police Col. Ann Assumpico, an unnamed trooper was driving Donald Morgan, 35, to a court appearance on obstruction and possession of a stolen motor vehicle charges.

When the trooper stopped at a crash on Route 146 and exited the car, Morgan, still handcuffed, got into the driver’s seat and drove away with the cruiser. The trooper’s weapon was not taken. Laura Meade Kirk, a spokeswoman for the state police, said she could not comment on questions related to procedures for the transport of prisoners. She would not comment on how many troopers would be subject to the standard administrative review required under state law following a shooting.

The police later located the cruiser at 45 Vineyard St., in Providence's West End. Morgan, who has a lengthy criminal record, remained at large. One auto-body shop owner reported that 40 to 50 police officers and state troopers descended on the area with dogs, searching for Morgan.

“He is obviously still somewhere in the area,” Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré said late Thursday at a news conference.

About an hour and a half after the cruiser was stolen, according to Cranston Police Col. Michael Winquist, a call went out across police radio channels asking officers across the state to be on the lookout for a white Ford F150 with something "hanging out the back."

The broadcast led the officer to suspect Morgan might be in the truck, Winquist said.

A Cranston officer saw a white Ford F150 driving “erratically” in the city shortly afterward, and attempted to pull the driver over. The truck stopped, but when the Cranston officer got out of his car, the driver “took off at a decent clip,” Winquist said. The truck swerved, made illegal turns, and sped past stop signs evading the police.

“The driver was showing a total disregard for public safety,” Winquist said. The officer followed the car and called the station, Winquist said.

The Cranston officer lost sight of the truck.

Providence police followed the truck onto the Route 95 north ramp behind the Providence Place Mall.

Michael Perry, 42, a Cranston building contractor, saw several state police cruisers speed by him Route 95 north as he drove to a meeting at The Miriam Hospital.

They were going so fast that “they were almost endangering their lives,” Perry said. “I knew something was going on.”

Up ahead, the state police were stopping all traffic, Perry said, and he assumed at first they were clearing the way for a dignitary.

Then, he heard a noise — “like a pop or crash” — as state police and Providence police converged, guns drawn, on a white pickup truck. “I pulled the camera out,” Perry said, and held it up through the sunroof to capture whatever was happening.

Perry’s video captures at least six officers firing upon the truck at close range. The truck rolls forward and a volley of at least eight gunshots is heard, followed by truck’s engine revving and a cloud of smoke.

“It happened so fast,” Perry said. All of the discharge from gunfire appeared to come from outside the truck, Perry said.

Law enforcement officials later said that the dead man was not Morgan.

A woman riding in the passenger seat of the white pickup truck remained at Rhode Island Hospital in unknown condition late Thursday, Paré said. Earlier in the day, police listed her as in critical condition.

The state medical examiner removed the dead man's body late Thursday.

Asked whether the fatal shooting of the man in the pickup truck was a tragic error, Paré said, "No, it is not."

"We're investigating ... why this individual did not stop and why police officers had to use deadly force," Paré said.

Paré would not comment on whether a weapon was found in the pickup truck.

He said he did not know what relationship the woman had with the driver of the pickup, but that “she and her behavior are part of the investigation.”

No police officers were injured. Paré said several of the Providence officers involved in the shooting were wearing body cameras.

Juan Carlos Ardaya, of Providence, said he’d just left Providence Place mall and was taking the entrance ramp on to Route 95 north when he saw the white pickup truck stuck in traffic.

And police officers, guns drawn, approaching the truck.

The truck’s windows were dark, Ardaya said, and he couldn’t see the occupants inside. There were state troopers and Providence police officers, and others who appeared to be in plainclothes, all coming toward the truck.

Ardaya said he saw the police try to open the truck’s door, but it was locked. There were police at the front and back of the truck, which was boxed in by vehicles, and Ardaya said he could hear them telling the occupants to get out of the truck.

“They were insisting. They were asking them to get out,” Ardaya said, through a Spanish translator by phone.

Instead, the truck’s driver went in reverse and slammed into the car behind it, Ardaya said. Then, the truck drove forward and hit the car in front, he said.

The truck drove back and forth twice, Ardaya said, as the driver tried to escape. Other motorists had gotten out of their vehicles and were standing nearby watching the scene, Ardaya said.

The truck backed up and “the policeman behind him had to move out of his way,” Ardaya said.

“That’s when they started shooting,” Ardaya said. The truck “was putting in danger the people in front of the car.”

Ardaya said he dropped down. “I was afraid,” he said. “At that moment, you start thinking this is the end. You think about your family. You think this could end right now. This was no computer game. This was reality.”

The gunfire stopped, and he raised up his cell-phone camera.

The truck rolled forward, he said, and the police fired again. The truck began smoking, and the horn blared, Ardaya said. He heard someone say: “Everything’s over.”

Within a few minutes, the police moved the traffic away from the scene. Ardaya said he never saw the people inside the truck.

Later, Ardaya said, he was thankful he was safe. “You just go to work, run errands and you never know that something like this can happen,” he said.

Ardaya added: “I’m thankful to the police. They were around me. They were trying to keep me protected and the people [around] me. The people who tried to escape didn’t care about that. I feel the police were doing their job and tried to wait until the last moment for the person to surrender. And, I feel sad for the people who died.”

In 2014 the Providence police adopted a general order on the use of force based on Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies standards.

The 11-page document breaks down appropriate situations for use of “lethal force” defined as “any tactic or use of force that is likely to cause serious bodily injury or death.”

Officers are only permitted to shoot at moving vehicles when it “necessary to stop a threat.” The officer is to focus on stopping the person of interest, not to disable the vehicle, according to the order. The state police follow a similar standard.

Also that year the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Plumhoff v. Rickard that when police officers in Tennessee fired “multiple rounds into a car” in a high-speed chase, killing a driver and a passenger they did not violate the law. The use of force “was not unreasonable” given the public safety risk posed by a reckless driver, the justices found in a unanimous decision.

The state’s top prosecutors were at the scene Thursday, as the attorney general’s office is responsible for investigating all officer-involved shootings.

The incident closed Route 95 in both directions for a time after the police chased a white pickup truck onto the highway ramp. Traffic began flowing on the highway at a very slow place around noon.

The back window of the truck bore the logo of Rock House Construction, of Johnston. David Antonucci, the owner of the company, said he sold the truck about two years ago. He said he could not recall the name of the buyer, but said the man was from Woonsocket.

Antonucci first heard about his old truck’s involvement in the shooting when he got a call from a reporter after the incident. His immediate thought was that it could have been his son’s truck, which is also white and has the company logo on it. But he checked with his son, who was safe in Warwick.

Once someone sent him a picture of the truck involved in the shooting, Antonucci realized it was not one of the six trucks currently owned by the company.

“We’ve changed the logo,” he said. “As soon as I saw that, I knew what it was.”

Providence public school officials locked down four West End schools in the area of Bucklin Street on Thursday morning as word of a dangerous incident emerged.

The schools, Lima, Fortes and Leviton elementary schools, and Gilbert Stuart Middle School, were closed to outside access, but classes continued as scheduled, school district spokeswoman Laura Hart said.

The lockdown ended sometime after 11 a.m., Hart said.



Providence Place mall remained open for business throughout the day, with curiosity seekers peering out the windows trying to catch a glimpse of the incident. Providence police officers restricted access to the parking garage overlooking the scene.



With reports from Alex Kuffner, Tom Mooney, Patrick Anderson and Amanda Milkovits, Journal staff writers.





Clarification: The vehicle in the incident was a Ford F250 police had initially said they were searching for a F150.

With reports from Alex Kuffner, Tom Mooney, Patrick Anderson and Mark Reynolds, Journal staff writers