Providence Shooting Gone Wrong - State Police and Providence Police Shot the Wrong People

GoLocal has learned that a series of errors by law enforcement led to the shooting of a man and a woman in a pickup truck on I-95 in front of Providence Place Mall.

The two shot were believed to be tied to an earlier incident related to a prisoner stealing a Rhode Island State Trooper’s cruiser earlier in the day. But, the man and the woman who were shot were not involved in the earlier incident. The unidentified man was killed in the police shooting and the woman is in critical condition.

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According to multiple law enforcement sources, an unidentified Rhode Island State Trooper transporting a prisoner had his vehicle stolen when he pulled over to investigate an accident on Route 146. The cruiser was stolen by Donald Morgan, age 35, who has no permanent address.

The incident took place at about 9 a.m. and it is unclear why the cruiser was not secured per protocol.

“The trooper was transporting the individual to court this morning and came upon an accident scene, and somewhere along those lines, again it's still being investigated, but the suspect somehow from the rear of the vehicle got into the vehicle, the front of the vehicle, and drove the cruiser,” said Rhode Island State Police Colonel Ann Assumpico.

“It's under investigation but I know the trooper did leave the vehicle for a short time,” said Assumpico.

“Again he was transporting the individual to court, you have to understand, once we come upon an accident, it is our duty to check on the welfare of the person involved. I know the individual was handcuffed,” she added.

The cruiser was recovered shortly afterward, when it was found abandoned in Providence.

When Providence Police and Rhode Island State Police found the abandoned cruiser and sources say they were told by witnesses that the perpetrator had escaped with a white pickup truck.

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At a press conference this afternoon held by Providence Police and Rhode Island State Police officials, both Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steve Pare and Assumpico spoke and repeatedly expressed that the two incidents are under investigation.

“At about quarter of 11 this morning, we had an officer involved in a shooting resulting in the death of a suspect. We have not positively identified the suspect. There was a second person in that vehicle that was shot and critically injured, she has not been positively identified. She is in the ER,” said Pare.

“We had police officers from Providence and we had troopers from the State Police involved in the shooting, so we had multiple. That's what we are investigating now, so we don’t have a lot of the details,” said Pare.

Pare said at the press release, “We don’t know if it is related to the earlier theft of a police cruiser, at this point, that is what we are putting together as well."

But, GoLocal has learned that there is no relationship other than the misidentification of the vehicle.

“The suspect who is here and shot and killed by police officers has not been identified as far as the relatedness of what precipitated this deadly use of force, we have not determined that,” said Pare.

Police do not know the relationship between the driver and passenger of the pick-up truck.

“We are looking at a number of police officers and troopers who discharged and when they discharged, this is going to take several hours because there are multiple officers involved and its going to take some time,” said Pare. '[We're] not sure if there were weapons in the truck, [the] investigation is ongoing."

Suspect Still on the Loose

Assumpico announced at 3 p.m. that troopers are seeking to arrest a Providence man in connection with the theft of the State Police cruiser.

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of this suspect are asked to call Rhode Island State Police 401-444-1000.

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