gianquitti

CRANSTON –– Nicholas Gianquitti became a Providence police officer in July 1991. He lasted just six months.

On Jan. 27, 1992, he fractured one of his knees while chasing a suspect off North Main Street. A year later, he was granted an accidental disability pension.

About the same time, he applied for and was granted a permit to carry a concealed weapon –– a privilege allowed by state law to retired law enforcement officers who pass criminal and psychological background checks.

It was a privilege he kept for the next 15 years, even while living with his family on quiet streets in well-kept neighborhoods, where the lawns were as lush as green carpets and hedges were perfectly trimmed.

It was a privilege he had until Sunday, when he was arrested for allegedly shooting and killing his neighbor, James Pagano, a Cranston Fire Department lieutenant.

Gianquitti, 40, had a permit to carry a .40-caliber handgun, said Michael Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office. But the Cranston police say the gun he allegedly used in the shooting was a different weapon, a .38-caliber.

Healey declined to answer questions about Gianquitti’s gun permit application, such as what Gianquitti listed for his occupation or why he needed the weapon.

Gianquitti, a graduate of Cranston High School West, and his wife, Jennifer, bought their split-level house at 16 Daisy Court for $340,000 on Oct. 31, 2005. They had returned to Cranston after spending a year in Los Angeles, according to a former neighbor, Ron Silvestri. They previously lived for several years on Oakwind Terrace, a quiet cul-de-sac of houses with landscaped properties and trees that smother sounds of traffic from nearby Oaklawn Avenue.

Gianquitti has been receiving a monthly accidental disability pension of $3,481, said Providence pension administrator Octavio Cunha. Gianquitti’s neighbors noticed he was often at home.

When the Gianquittis lived on Oakwind Terrace, they became friendly with Silvestri and his wife, Robin. The Silvestris’ son and Gianquitti’s daughter were close to the same age and became friends. Gianquitti took the children trick-or-treating. Gianquitti and Silvestri got together to watch football and baseball, and cleaned their yards together.

“He was neat, I was neat, too. I was fussy, he was fussy,” Silvestri said.

The Gianquittis sold their house in 2004 and moved to Los Angeles, but returned to Cranston the next year, moving to 16 Daisy Court. Silvestri said that Gianquitti told him they hadn’t liked California and his daughter, now 16, missed Cranston High School West.

Silvestri said that he and Gianquitti stayed in touch. Last year, he said, Gianquitti was complaining about some of the children in the neighborhood.

“They used to kick soccer balls and always bang his cars,” Silvestri recalled Gianquitti saying. “He used to go talk to them nice and say ‘Stop doing that.’ They’d stop doing that, and then the next day they’d hit his car again.”

Gianquitti couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t listen to him, Silvestri said. “They were brand-new cars, and he didn’t like his cars being ruined.”

During their last conversation two weeks ago, Gianquitti didn’t mention the neighborhood children, Silvestri said. They talked instead about their lawns.

Silvestri said he called the Gianquitti family Sunday after hearing the news of the shooting. He couldn’t sleep for thinking about his friend.

“I just don’t get it,” he said from his doorway yesterday. “He was a great neighbor –– best neighbor I ever had.”

amilkovi@projo.com