PAWTUCKET -- Once, during a family cookout in the back yard of his
Pawtucket ranch, Robert Benetti joked with his father about taking a
swim in the pool. His father, smiling, insisted he wasn't getting wet.
Oh, yes you will, his son said. Back and forth they went.
Then, Benetti and a friend picked up the lawn chair, his father and all,
and gently dipped him in the above-ground pool. His father laughed.
That is what passed for the tough side of Robert Benetti.
Benetti, who was 38, was "incapable," his friends said yesterday, of
being cruel, of provoking a fellow employee into violence.
On Saturday morning, Carlos Pacheco, a 20-year Providence Journal
employee, walked into the newspaper's Kinsley Avenue production plant,
in Providence, and shot Benetti, a supervisor, then walked outside and
shot Charles Johnson, 30, another employee, who was sitting in his
pickup truck. Johnson was injured, but survived. The police say Pacheco
killed a second employee, 29-year-old Matthew Fandetti, at his house in
Warwick.
After the gunfire Saturday morning, Pacheco's car was found engulfed in
flames in a parking lot. His badly charred body and his gun were inside.
Pacheco's family said he was being harassed at work over union issues.
Yesterday, Lora Benetti said "it would certainly be out of character"
for her late husband to allow taunting or harassment in their workplace.
Speaking through the family's lawyer, Christopher Fay, Mrs. Benetti said
she had not heard of any tension or problems at work.
As Fay read her statement outside the house, Lora Benetti stood near a
maple tree, her arms around their two daughters, ages 7 and 11. "Bob was
well-loved by those he came in contact with daily, whether it was
through his family, friends, coworkers, or his martial-arts instruction."
After the statement, Lora Benetti, who met her husband at The Journal,
where she also works, turned and quietly ushered her girls inside.
Shortly after, their son Bobby, 10, came across the lawn, with an uncle
who had taken him to buy new shoes.
Benetti's friends say there is no reason why anyone would want to hurt
him.
"Who would hurt Bob?" said Mark Ondrasek, Benetti's friend who works in
The Journal's maintenance department.
Ondrasek and his wife, Ann, have a theory on why Pacheco shot Benetti,
and the others.
"Maybe he picked, I don't know, the best guys."
Robert Fenner worked in The Journal's production plant for 30 years,
until last May, when he said he left because of an injury. While playing
cards with Pacheco one day during a break, Fenner said Pacheco told him
he was being taunted by Fandetti and Johnson for not joining the union,
and that he was angry at Benetti for not stopping it.
Fenner said he did not see Pacheco being harassed, but that the
environment at the plant was "very stressful."
Frank A. Manfredi, president of Teamster's Local 64, said he was unaware
of any harassment. "We are not aware of any grievance being filed, or
any sign of disenchantment."
Richard Bergeron, principal officer of the union, said workers at The
Journal's plant aren't required to join the union. As a supervisor,
Benetti wasn't covered by the Teamsters union.
Yesterday, Providence Journal Publisher Howard G. Sutton, said there are
no reports -- from supervisors, human resources, or current employees --
to support a claim that Pacheco was being harassed. The company would
like to hear from anyone who has information to the contrary, he said.
The Journal has a "strict policy against harassment."
AS BENETTI'S loved ones seek answers, more information came to light
yesterday about Pacheco.
The police said yesterday that Pacheco picked up a .45-caliber Smith &
Wesson on Thursday from Quick Arms & Supply, a gun shop in Warwick, and
bought ammunition. He had bought the gun at least the week before, but
was legally required to wait seven days before picking it up.
Also, the state police yesterday gave an account of stopping Pacheco,
driving his new black Nissan Maxima, for erratic driving on Route 95 in
Warwick last Tuesday. Pacheco told a friend on Friday, three days after
the stop, that the people who were harassing him were chasing him down
the highway. He said the officer who pulled him over, Detective James
Dougherty was "the only one who knows the truth."
But yesterday, the state police said that Dougherty stopped Pacheco's
car because he braked for no apparent reason. Maj. John J. Leyden Jr.
said that when Pacheco asked Dougherty if he'd seen the car chasing him,
Dougherty told him that he hadn't.
"It's always the second guy that gets caught," Pacheco said, according
to Dougherty's report.
Dougherty checked Pacheco's license and registration, then walked back
to the car to return them and give Pacheco a verbal warning, Leyden
said. Pacheco was crying, Leyden said. "He was very appreciative, overly
appreciative," said Leyden, and there was no other conversation.
After the shootings Saturday morning, Pacheco called 911 three times
within 17 minutes.
The first call was at 9:28 a.m. "I just shot two people, hopefully
killed," Pacheco said. "I'd like to speak to a state police detective .
. . If it's not him, I'm going to be less than happy. Some more people
might get hurt."
The second call was at 9:40. "My name is Carlos Pacheco. Maybe you're
looking for me." He asked for Dougherty.
The third time, at 9:45, Pacheco gave his name and hung up.
After the second call, a trooper tracked down Dougherty, who called
Pacheco, Leyden said, but he got Pacheco's voice mail.
AS THE POLICE investigate, Benetti's family prepares for his funeral, on
Thursday. (Obituary, C-4.) Jin Hong, a master instructor of Tae Kwon-Do,
at Master Hong's World Class Tae Kwon Do Center, in North Kingstown,
where Benetti was a teacher, yesterday sent the family Benetti's
martial-arts uniform for him to be buried in. It was wrapped in the
instructor's black belt, said Hong, who decided to close his school this
week.
"I need to sit down and gather my thoughts and my spirit," Hong said.
Benetti was the oldest of five children. The youngest son died three
years ago. This weekend, Benetti's father, also named Robert, wondered
aloud why God would take two sons, said Ann Ondrasek.
And yesterday, her husband, Mark Ondrasek, talked about the plans he and
his best friend had for the summer. They were going to take their
children to Enchanted Forest in Hopkinton. Benetti had already taken his
three children. But he thought it would be fun for Maia, Ondrasek's
15-month-old daughter.
Benetti had recently drawn Maia a picture of Elmo for her first
birthday. He wanted to take it back, work on it more. The Ondraseks
thought it was so perfect, they hung it in their living room.
Benetti had recently planted grass in his front yard, where there are
red flowers, and a rope swing. He was just starting on the back yard,
Ondrasek said, for those poolside barbecues.
"He had a lot of plans," said Ondrasek.
Yesterday, Lora Benetti greeted a crowd of media. "Come on, girls," she
said, softly to Alyssa, and Arianna, who was dressed in lilac, like her
mom.
A garden hose stretched across the driveway, behind her, and against the
garage, was an open bag of wood chips. The air smelled of fresh soil.
Her mother, and other relatives accompanied her inside the house -- tan,
with burgundy outdoor lanterns that match the burgundy shutters.
"Her husband is dead and she has three children to raise alone," said
Fay, the lawyer, a family friend.
A few men walked out of the house and stood near the fence. They said
they were going to do yard work.
With reports from staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski
