“The policeman behind him had to move out of his way,” said witness Juan Carlos Ardaya. “That’s when they started shooting.”

Juan Carlos Ardaya, of Providence, said that 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.

Juan Carlos Ardaya's video:

Michael Perry's video:

Instead, the truck’s driver put it 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.”

— amilkovi@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7213

On Twitter: @AmandaMilkovits



