[stop-polabuse] kilRI01-Cops shoot, kill Black cop; one had prior criticized shooting
Michael Novick
Off-duty officer is fatally shot by patrolmen responding to fight
http://projo.com/report/pjb/stories/03109633.htm
Providence RI Journal
Providence police bring a charge of felony murder against Aldrin Diaz, 29,
who waved a gun outside a diner but dropped it to the ground before
Patrolman Cornel Young Jr. is shot.
By JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- An off-duty police officer who drew his gun while intervening
in a fracas outside a Valley Street diner early yesterday was fatally shot
by two fellow patrolmen who evidently did not recognize him.
Patrolman Cornel Young Jr. was killed about 1:40 a.m., after bursting out
of Fidas Restaurant and running into the sounds of sirens, brawlers and two
on-duty officers yelling for everyone to drop their weapons, the police said.
The son of a high-ranking police official, Young probably believed the
officers recognized him, Police Chief Urbano Prignano Jr. said, but
Patrolman Carlos A. Saraiva and Michael Solitro III mistook him for a
suspect and shot him three times.
At police headquarters yesterday, glassy-eyed officers mourned Young's
death as detectives pursued charges against the first man to draw a gun,
whom the police blame for turning Young's focus away from his take-out
order and onto quelling the violent chaos.
State prosecutors began investigating the homicide, the first of a
Providence police officer in nearly six years. Some protesters complained
that the police would not have shot at Young, who is black, if he were white.
The trouble began, Lt. Terrence M. Crawley said, as a simple argument
between two groups standing in the entrance of Fidas, an all-night diner at
270 Valley St. that club-goers flock to after the city's nightspots close.
According to Crawley, Diana Villafane, 20, and Stephanie Zoglio, 20, both
of East Providence, were already in the cramped eatery when a Chevrolet
Camaro carrying another group of friends pulled into the icy parking lot.
Remaining in the car were Aldrin Diaz, 29, of Providence, and Christa
Calder, 27, of Maine. Brenda Ruiz, 23, and Juanita Vasquez, 30, both of
Providence, headed into the diner.
The police are not sure who looked at whom at this point, but Crawley said
it was a stray glance that prompted some quick-tempered words of jealousy
and started the quarrel that ended just minutes later with Young's death.
After Villafane and Zoglio exchanged words with Ruiz and Vasquez, things
got physical, Crawley said. They pushed and shoved. Vasquez smashed a
glass, and cut the air with a jagged piece aimed at her newfound rivals.
Diaz left the Camaro and rushed into Fidas, but he only got as far as the
entrance before running into an exodus of patrons, Crawley said. The night
manager, Mahmoud Kashk, ordered everyone out. And he called 911.
A RAMSHACKLE assemblage of wood paneling and formica that smells of grease,
Fidas is a common flashpoint for violence, a regular in the police blotter
for assaults and disorderly conduct.
In 1982, a small-time hood, Anthony ``The Moron'' Mirabella, was killed in
a gangland slaying at Fidas. A Providence police officer was accused of
assaulting a civilian there in 1995; the charges were later dismissed.
Despite Fidas's reputation, some police frequent the establishment,
especially officers who work late hours, including Young, who joined the
department three years ago and had recently been working a shift from 7
p.m. to 3 a.m.
``He was a real nice guy. Quiet. Just got his food and left,'' said Kashk,
who called Young a regular customer.
The police said Thursday was a day off for Young, a broad-chested man with
a gentle smile who, his family said, devoted hours counseling poor children
at churches across the city.
Young was the first child of Maj. Cornel Young Sr., who oversees the
department's community police officers. Major Young is the highest ranking
black officer on the force.
Patrolman Young followed his father into the department three years ago.
Early yesterday, Crawley said, Young went to Fidas for take-out. While
Young waited for his usual steak club sandwich, Kashk said, the dispute
erupted.
Chief Prignano said Young acted properly by not intervening until other
officers arrived on scene: Young was dressed in plainclothes -- he was
wearing a baseball hat.
A crowd of perhaps two dozen people gathered in the cold. Crawley said the
fighting quieted briefly in the winter chill, only to resume with some
shoving among the women and a fistfight among some men.
``It was complete mayhem, and it was crazy,'' said John San Martino, the
cashier at a Mobil gas station across the street. ``I was sitting in the
gas station and thought, Thank God I have bulletproof glass around me.''
Villafane grabbed a dumbbell and slammed it against the Camaro, Crawley
said. Calder, who owned the car, remained inside. A woman yelled to Diaz,
``Get the gun.''
The woman -- who has not yet been identified -- was referring to a
.22-caliber handgun stowed in the Camaro. Soon, Crawley said, the car was
running, Diaz was in the driver's seat and he was waving the gun out the
driver's window.
Then, Patrolmen Saraiva and Solitro arrived. Saraiva attended the same
police academy as Young. On Westminster Street Sept. 18, Saraiva shot an
unarmed man in the legs; the police said he was being beaten and acted in
self-defense.
Solitro had joined the Police Department two weeks earlier. He had been
assigned to patrol the city with the more experienced officer, as all young
patrolmen do when they first begin on the job.
Drop your weapons, the new partners yelled into the crowd, Crawley said.
Diaz pulled his hand with the gun inside the Camaro, discarded the gun and
stuck his hands outside the window, Crawley said.
San Martino, the gas station cashier who witnessed the altercation, said
the officers were behind a man waving a gun.
The flash and blare of the sirens of the approaching police cruiser
prompted Young to take action. The police say that they are always on duty,
that they must intervene in trouble whenever they can.
The police must always carry a gun for just those situations. Standing in
the restaurant, watching Diaz wave a gun, Young drew his, Crawley said.
Young told everyone inside to duck, then rushed outside to help the
patrolmen.
Young burst through the restaurant's double doors just as Saraiva and
Solitro were ordering everyone to drop their weapons, Crawley said. Chief
Prignano commended Young's bravery.
One witness told detectives that Young identified himself, but 16 other
witnesses interviewed by the police did not hear him amid the sirens and
screaming, Crawley said. The police interviewed Saraiva and Solitro, too.
The police believe Young did not think the officers were ordering him to
drop his weapon.
Crawley said they yelled two or three more times, Drop your weapons. Both
patrolmen fired at Young, hitting him once in the head, once in the chest
and once in the stomach. Young fell to the ground.
Kashk, Fidas's night manager, who was in a backroom when he heard three
loud shots, said he rushed outside and saw the police taking out Young's
wallet, realizing who it was and becoming upset, cursing and yelling.
An ambulance rushed Young to Rhode Island Hospital, Prignano said. But he
lost eight pints of blood, the chief said, and he died while doctors
furiously tried to save him on the operating table.
Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., in Washington, D.C., attending a meeting of
the U.S. Conference of Mayors, issued a statement praising Young as a
``vital and heroic'' man who ``made the ultimate sacrifice.''
``Today is one of the saddest days in the history of the Providence Police
Department,'' Prignano said at a news conference. He ended his remarks:
``This is a time of grief for our entire Providence police family.''
Prignano blamed Diaz for the death. ``The responsibility of this tragic
incident lies with the suspect Aldrin Diaz who introduced the use of a
firearm into this disturbance,'' the chief said.
Diaz, who has a long arrest record, was charged in District Court yesterday
with felony murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a pistol
without a license and committing a crime of violence while armed. He was
ordered held without bail at the state prison, Maj. Martin F. Hames said.
Calder is in police custody.
YOUNG IS THE SIXTH Providence police officer killed in the line of duty
since 1928. News of the death elicited unanimous sadness, but also prompted
different reactions among police and some people of color.
Just hours after the incident, the shooting began to take on a racial tone.
A small crowd of demonstrators protested outside police headquarters,
questioning whether Young was shot because he was black.
Clifford Montiero, president of the Providence branch of the NAACP, who has
called on the police to hire and promote more African-Americans on the
470-member force, said in a statement: ``It seems to us that these
African-Americans should be fully known by their fellow police officers.''
Yet after more than 60 ministers, city council members and community
leaders met in private, the Rev. Marlowe V.N. Washington, pastor of Allen
A.M.E. Church, said, ``It is not a racial issue as far as I'm concerned.''
Robert Jones, of the local chapter of the National Conference for Community
and Justice, warned against rushing to judgment. The U.S. Attorney's Office
in Boston dispatched a mediator to ease any tensions, the police said.
Both black and white police officers dismissed talk that the shooting was
racially motivated. Major Hames, the department inspector, said, ``The only
color here is blue.''
Overriding the officers' concerns that Young's death could prompt racial
tensions, however, was their obvious sadness. ``We're very badly shaken
up,'' said a red-eyed Patrolman Michael M. Marcoccio, president of the
police union.
Inside headquarters, the police stretched black bands across their badges.
A group of officers who act as stress counselors were pressed into service.
The department ordered black bunting for the station's entrance where an
American flag flew at half-staff.
At Major Young's house, said a family spokesman who requested anonymity,
streams of police and other well-wishers gathered to pay their respects as
the family made preparations for Patrolman Young's funeral.
The family spoke of Young through the spokesman: ``Like his father, he was
friendly, he was warm and caring, and he was willing to help anybody
anytime and anyplace, even at great personal sacrifice.''
With staff reports from Karen Davis, Jennifer Levitz, W. Zachary
Malinowski, Tom Mooney and Mike Stanton.
1.29.2000 00:58:18
Officer involved in peer's death had shot, wounded before
PROVIDENCE -- One of the officers involved in the shooting death of
Patrolman Cornel Young Jr. early yesterday was involved in a shooting
incident on Westminster Street last fall, but the police say state
prosecutors cleared him.
Patrolman Carlos Saraiva, an officer for three years, fired two shots at
the legs of Jose Nunez, 25, outside the 30-30 Club at 880 Westminster St.
about 2 a.m. on Sept. 18 while being attacked, the police said.
Saraiva told investigators that he was jumped from behind and pummeled in
the head before he shot Nunez, who was unarmed. He told the investigators
that he feared he was going to lose consciousness and his gun would be taken.
His colleagues on the police force said his head was seriously swollen. He
was out on paid leave while recovering from his injuries, and then was
placed on administrative duty while state prosecutors reviewed the matter.
Nunez's girlfriend, Jasmin Tejada, 22, gave a different account. She told
The Journal that Nunez never attacked the officer and that the officer
shoved her to the ground.
A community group, Direct Action for Rights and Equality, called the
shooting unwarranted and demanded punishment. The police forwarded the
matter to the attorney general's office.
Yesterday, Police Chief Urbano Prignano Jr. said ``He was cleared by the
attorney general's office.'' It could not be learned last night when
Saraiva returned to active duty.
Nunez demonstrated outside the police station yesterday. ``Only Latinos and
blacks get shot in Providence,'' he said, calling himself ``lucky'' to have
survived his shooting. The police race was not a factor in the death of
Young, who was black, and some local civil-rights leaders agreed.
-- JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
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KMurphySmith
send our condolence to the family of the young officer who was shoot by fellow
officers in Providence, RI.
K.M.S.