Former Governor Chafee Questions “Mistakes” in Providence Police Shooting

Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee appeared on GoLocal LIVE, where he spoke to the recent police shooting in Providence that resulted in the death of Joseph Santos and critical injuries to Christine Demers -- which he said seemed like the result of a series of "mistakes."

"My reactions are similar to so many Rhode Islanders -- we understand that in a hyper situation such as this, emotions sometimes can take hold, but at the same time, it just seemed like a rolling succession of little mistakes that ended up with a big mistake," said Chafee, in the wide-ranging interview.

Chafee, who served as Rhode Island Governor from 2011 to 2014 after having been in the United States Senate from 1999 to 2007 -- and Mayor of Warwick prior to that -- is considering making another run for Rhode Island's top office in 2018.

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Chafee started by speaking to the police incident, before moving to economic and political topics.

"I give GoLocal a lot of credit for the [shooting} coverage. You were all over it, had those videos up....they were very instructive for the public to see right away," said Chafee.

Chafee noted that as Mayor, he had been in office during a police shooting.

"Well, these things don't happen that often. When I was a Mayor, we had a shooting, somebody that had stolen from a convenience store, and was stopped on 95 and wouldn't obey commands and the police ended up killing him," said Chafee.

"But you want to have a review -- thorough review, and go through all the procedures -- they say all the procedures were followed," said Chafee, of the recent shooting event in Providence. "It seems as though, for instance having the prisoner in the [State Police] car with it running, is not a good procedure, while he's handcuffed."

"So looking at the procedure -- to see what can be improved -- that's how to move forward," said Chafee.

Chafee noted that he sees litigation now as a concern.

"Cornel Young -- you'll always have a lawsuits. Just what I was thinking, here come the lawsuits. that's what I thinking," said Chafee. "Then the poor victim in the hospital is probably surrounded by lawyers."

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Rhode Island ACLU Executive Director Steve Brown recently appeared on GoLocal LIVE, where he expressed the group's own concerns about the shooting.

“If you say that he was using the vehicle as a dangerous weapon then, I think you have to argue he was using the vehicle as a dangerous weapon the whole time, which would mean [police] could use deadly force any time there's a high-speed chase,” said Brown.

“We tried to put all the information together. What concerned us in both news conferences is that officials said that although the investigation was ongoing they felt everything was done 'properly,” said Brown.

Related Slideshow: Grading the Chafee Administration

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