Rafael Jimenez, left, co-owner or La Rumba nightclub, listens as Mario Mancedo translates during a hearing before the Providence Board of Licenses yesterday. An 18-year-old patron was stabbed to death last week outside the Broad Street club.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — Darren Reagans, 18, who was stabbed to death outside La Rumba nightclub on the Fourth of July, was the victim of an apparent retaliation, a police officer testified in a nightclub-licensing hearing yesterday.

Patrolman Joseph A. Mignano Jr. testified that an eyewitness who was a cousin of Reagans told him that a man who attacked Reagans said at the outset of the attack, “You got my boy” or “You did something to my boy.”

The remark indicated that the attack was “some sort of retaliation” for something that occurred at a previous time, Mignano said.

The man was among a group of 10 to 15 people who set upon Reagans as Reagans and two cousins walked to a waiting line outside La Rumba, according to hearing testimony. The unnamed eyewitness said he saw the man who made the remark strike Reagans in the face but that he did not see who stabbed Reagans, according to Mignano.

Reagans, of 10 Cornplanter Row, South Providence, who was known as “D,” was a widely known teenage athlete and the father of a 14-month-old daughter whose mother is four months’ pregnant with their second child.

Reagans died outside La Rumba, at 1206 Broad St., shortly after he and his cousins arrived for an all-ages party with a cover charge at about 10:45 p.m., according to testimony and a written police report.

The police recovered two knives at the scene, but investigators have not concluded that either was the weapon used to kill Reagans, according to police Detective Michael J. Fallon, the lead investigator on the homicide, and Maj. Paul C. Fitzgerald. One was a folding knife and the other a black-handed kitchen knife that was broken in two, Fallon testified.

Fitzgerald said after the hearing at City Hall that the investigation was proceeding slowly because of the large number of witnesses to be interviewed, and some key witnesses, who “have not come forward.” Fallons testified during the hearing that not all of those who reportedly attacked Reagans have been identified.

The testimony came at a hearing held by the city Board of Licenses in response to a Police Department request that La Rumba be stripped of its liquor license for its failure to prevent illegal activity in proximity to its premises, including the homicide and a simultaneous public disturbance. Assistant City Solicitor Max Foster cited a state Supreme Court ruling that liquor licensees are responsible for activity related to the licensed business that occurs in the vicinity of the licensed premises, not just inside.

Board Chairman Andrew J. Annaldo said the board would make a decision on the license within five days. In the meantime, La Rumba must maintain a three-member police detail that the board ordered last week to ensure security.

As the police arrived at La Rumba in response to a report of a stabbing, they said chaos reigned in front of the club. Mignano said a crowd of 100 to 150 was gathered, that some people were hysterical, and that a few men had the shirtless Reagans propped up against a parked motor vehicle, once or twice losing their grip as he slipped partly or all the way to the street.

“Bottles were breaking at our feet” as he and another officer tried to quell the noisy crowd even as they attempted to reach the clearly wounded Reagans, Mignano recalled. Several small fights had erupted and people were clutching at Mignano, imploring him to get medical help for the victim, he testified.

Initial news accounts of the crime said Reagans was stabbed when he became involved in a fight while standing on line. But Mignano quoted Reagans’ eyewitness cousin as saying that Reagans was attacked in front of the club en route to the line, which snaked around the north side of the building.

At least 2 of the 10 to 15 attackers had been standing in line beforehand, according to a witness who recognized them, Fallon testified. He said the witness was unable to say whether either of those two stabbed Reagans.

Testifying besides Mignano and Fallon was Rafael Jimenez, a co-owner of the club, who said the club had been rented that night for a private party with entertainment promoted by Lowell Williams. Williams burst into the public eye in March as a local 18-year-old music producer and promoter when the board conditionally approved his staging of a hip-hop concert at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.

The concert headliners were to include Jim Jones, a member of the loose-knit national Bloods gang, and the police warned that there was a strong potential for trouble if the concert was allowed to take place as planned. A controversy quickly welled up, and the board rescinded the license when Williams would not bow to certain requirements.

The police said Williams promoted recent music events at Ada’s Creations, a restaurant on Broad Street, and Tantric, a lounge on North Main Street, but that the required entertainment licenses had not been obtained. The board gave formal disciplinary warnings to both Ada’s and Tantric for the lack of entertainment licenses.

gsmith@projo.com