Providence police officer killed at headquarters with own gun

09:47 AM EDT on Monday, April 18, 2005

BY MARK ARSENAULT, AMANDA MILKOVITS and CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY
Journal Staff Writers

PROVIDENCE -- A 27-year veteran of the police force was shot and killed early yesterday inside his own police station, with his own gun, by a suspect he had been questioning about a Saturday afternoon knife attack, according to the police.

After twice shooting Detective James L. Allen, the suspect, Esteban Carpio, 26, shot out the glass in a third-floor office window, jumped 30 feet to the ground and fled into downtown Providence, where he was captured by the police on Washington Street after a violent struggle, the police said yesterday.

Allen, 50, was pronounced dead early yesterday morning at Rhode Island Hospital. He lived in Johnston, and leaves his wife, Marguerite, and two daughters. He was the son of retired Providence Police Capt. Lloyd Allen.

Police officers yesterday grappled with the nearly incomprehensible: that one of their own had been killed in the place they should feel the safest.

"This is our house," said Detective John Murray Jr., who sat next to Allen in the detective's squad room. "What are we going to do -- burn the station down? How are we going to walk down that hall?"

Officer Clarence Gough explained, "This isn't like someone who's been murdered out on the street. This is where we spend most of our time when we're not home. I spend more time in this house than I do in the one I bought and paid for."

"Now it's not safe," Gough said. "If we can't make this safe, where can we be safe?"

Allen is the third Providence police officer killed on the job since 1994.

"This has been a hard night for this Police Department and a hard night for this city," said Police Chief Dean M. Esserman, speaking slowly in clipped sentences, at a news conference yesterday at police headquarters, two floors below where Allen was killed.

"A husband, a father, a police detective was killed early this morning. Doing his job. Serving this city. Serving as one of our guardians -- what we ask our 500-strong to do.

"It is little consolation that a suspect has been apprehended," Esserman said. "We've lost a remarkable man today and this city is the worse for it."

Carpio suffered hand, foot and head injuries from the 30-foot plunge from the window, the police said. He was treated at Rhode Island Hospital, and then held last night at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston.

He is expected to be arraigned in court today. He faces one count of murder.

Officers recovered the gun, a .40-caliber Beretta police service weapon, on the ground beneath the broken window through which Carpio escaped.

Esserman and Mayor David N. Cicilline pledged a thorough investigation, but police would not address questions yesterday about procedures for interrogating suspects and carrying weapons inside the stations.

"We will answer all of your questions in due time," said Cmdr. Paul J. Kennedy, deputy police chief, "but I think it's important right now that we pay tribute to [Allen] and his family. We can talk about all of these issues some other time.

"This is obviously a very difficult day for me personally and for the entire Police Department," said Kennedy, who attended the police academy with Allen, in 1978.

Allen spent 10 years in the patrol division and then joined the detective bureau, Kennedy said. Allen's photographic memory for names, faces and dates earned him the nickname "Rainman" in the department. "He was a phenomenal man, an outstanding investigator, and one of the most talented people we have," Kennedy said.

Colleagues describedAllen as a hard worker who never sought the limelight. One of Allen's most recent high-profile cases was the 2001 murder of East Side doctor Hani Zaki.

Out of a force of 500 officers, Allen was one of the top 20 longest-serving. "There will be a lot said about Jimmy over the next few days, you just need to know he was an outstanding human being," Kennedy said.

Johnston and Providence police officers kept guard outside Allen's home yesterday. They turned reporters away.

ALLEN WORKED LATE on Saturday night, investigating an unsolved stabbing in the city's north end. The victim in that case was 84-year-old Madeline Gatta, who lives on Swift Street.

At 1:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon, Gatta was approached by a man outside her house, according to the Providence police report.

The stranger asked Gatta for directions -- to a street that does not exist. Then he tried to swipe Gatta's pocketbook.

She fought back.

The police say the man stabbed her between the shoulder blades.

He fled to a red Dodge Caravan and drove away, according to neighbor Kristina Gruslin's statement to police. Gruslin took down the license plate number and called 911. She gave the police a description of the suspect.

Gatta was still in the hospital last evening, according to her sister.

Police traced the red van to Sensible Car Rental, in Bristol, which had rented it to Carpio and his girlfriend, Samein Ohin, the police said.

The police had two Providence addresses for Ohin: 18 Bernon St. and 95 Whittier Ave.. Carpio's last known address, according to the police report, was 14 Collgate Road in Roslindale, Mass.

Ohin's sister said in an interview yesterday the couple had a 3-year-old child together. The sister, who declined to be identified, said Carpio had $600 in his pocket on Saturday and didn't need to rob anybody. She said he had a job, but did not know what he did for a living.

Carpio has not been charged with the stabbing.

CHIEF ESSERMAN was notified Saturday afternoon about the stabbing. He was troubled by its viciousness. He said he told the detectives to "pull out all the stops" in the investigation.

The chief spoke to Allen that afternoon, who told him they were tracking the suspect's vehicle from the license plate.

Allen should have been off for the weekend, according to fellow detectives. He typically took time off during school vacation to be with his two daughters, said Murray. But the girls, 14 and 16, were going to be in a dance show in Las Vegas, and Allen told the other detectives that he was going to take time off later for their show.

After the police tracked the van to Carpio and his girlfriend, they worked through the girlfriend to get Carpio to surrender peacefully for questioning, Kennedy said.

Carpio was taken to the station at around 9 or 10 p.m., and led up to the detective bureau on the third floor.

At some point, according to interviews with a number of police officers, Allen and Detectives Timothy McGann and Emilio Matos Jr. brought Carpio into a conference room. Other detectives followed. The room is used to interview witnesses, and those possibly connected with cases.

Carpio was not under arrest, so he was not in an interrogation room. He was not handcuffed.

At 11:15, a call came over the police radio about a shooting on Linwood Avenue. Some of the detectives ran out to respond.

Carpio kept asking for water. Some officers speculated later that he was trying to size each of them up.

Carpio is a big man, some of them said, muscular and strong.

Allen had an average build, about 5 feet 10, 160 pounds. He was soft-spoken, never raised his voice, and didn't appear intimidating. But the other cops said that Allen's appearance concealed a brilliant mind.

"A person would look at Jimmy and underestimate him," said Detective Robert Miele. "And Jimmy would weave his web around them, and their answers would bite them. . ."

At about midnight, Matos was outside the conference room in the squad area. McGann agreed to get Carpio water from the detectives' kitchen across the hall, leaving Allen alone with the suspect.

Gunfire exploded in the room.

Esserman was already on his way to the hospital to speak with the victim from the Linwood shooting when his police radio suddenly erupted with shouting, and calls cutting through each other.

"All available cars report to headquarters!"

"We have someone down!"

Esserman said later, "I was thinking and hoping that my worst nightmare wouldn't be realized."

He swerved around and drove to the station.

Miele was off-duty in the city when his supervisors called, ordering him to the station.

Officer Gough was celebrating at his surprise 50th birthday party when his cell phone lit up with frantic calls from other officers.

They all headed to the station, part of a wave of police officers who surrounded the headquarters and swarmed inside, guns drawn, searching for the gunman.

The conference room was locked.

Someone brought up the battering ram from the narcotics division and brown down the door. An inside conference room door opened into Maj. Stephen Campbell's corner office. There, the police found the broken window, from which Carpio is alleged to have jumped.

In the conference room, Allen lay on the floor.

Firefighters arrived quickly and ran IVs into his arms and performed CPR, Esserman said.

Miele saw the chaos as officers scrambled inside and outside the station shortly after midnight yesterday, searching for the gunman as firefighters tried to revive their colleague.

"There was this feeling of helplessness," Miele said. "We're so used to having control over the situation, and there was no way to have control over this."

MICHAEL CRUGNALE, a driver for Yellow Cab for nearly nine years, was working early yesterday morning , when his dispatcher took a call about 12:45 a.m. from the bar at the AS220 art space on Empire Street in downtown Providence.

The bartender said a customer wanted a lift to either Boston or New York City and had $500 cash, Crugnale said.

"My dispatcher called me on my cell phone . . . and said 'Mike, I know there was an incident downcity with a shooting with a detective. Now we have a guy who wants to go to Boston or New York.' "

She told Crugnale, "Use your judgment."

Crugnale drove toward downtown and saw a police roadblock in front of the station. He parked his cab and told the officers: "Im not certain but I'm pretty sure . . . that the guy you're looking for is calling me to go to New York City."

The officers radioed colleagues with the information. Crugnale continued toward downtown, to Empire and Washington streets.

Crugnale saw a man coming from the direction of AS220.

"He was running like a bat outta hell," he said. "That's when the cops caught him."

Officer Scott Petrocchi, who works the gang squad, and an FBI agent partnered with him, saw Carpio first. Two more state troopers came running.

Carpio put up a violent struggle, the police said. Smears of dried blood stained the sidewalk yesterday under the awning of Roger Williams University, 150 Washington St., where he fought. A bloody footprint remained in front of the school's entrance.

EARLY YESTERDAY MORNING, after Allen was pronounced dead, hospital staff moved his body to a private area within the emergency room, "for both the family and officers who wanted to pay their last respects," said Nicole Gustin, spokesperson for Rhode Island Hospital.

All through the dark hours, officers -- on-duty and off -- called each other and met at the hospital. The nurses set out coffee and juice and hugged them, Miele said.

The officers formed their own walk-through and lined up to say goodbye to Allen. The chief and the mayor stayed beside the fallen detective, as one cop after another came through and said farewell, Miele said.

SHARDS OF quarter-inch-thick glass were still scattered at 10 a.m. yesterday over the grass embankment in front of the east side of the station, facing Route 95. Investigators were visible at work behind the jagged hole in the double-pane window of Campbell's third-floor office.

The bottom of the window is 30 feet above the ground. Directly beneath the window, a metal grate is set into concrete. A lawn surrounds the grate, and then slopes to the sidewalk.

Kennedy said Carpio had an extensive record both in Rhode Island and out of state for narcotics and assault charges.

"He's known to us; absolutely, he's been here before," he said.

According to court records, Carpio was arrested for domestic assault and larceny under $500 in Providence, but those charges were dismissed.

Joy Fox, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said a restraining order had been placed against Carpio relating to a November 2003 domestic assault. Carpio has not served time in prison in Massachusetts, but Fox said he had been charged in Boston on robbery and drug offenses. Carpio had worked as a barber and had been employed by the Urban League, according to the Boston records, Fox said.

Carpio was to be held overnight in segregation at the ACI, Fox said.

Because the allegation against Carpio involves the murder of an on-duty police officer, he could be sentenced to life in prison without parole, the police said.

"NOT JIMMY!"

All through the long night and day, officers gathered, bleary-eyed, with tears and anguish, to talk about James Allen.

"The kid wouldn't hurt a fly," said Detective Murray, who'd sat next to Allen in the squad room and had known him since they were police explorers together.

Allen was smart, but didn't try to show it off, said Gough. He just did his job, and loved being a police officer.

He was a gentleman, never engaging in the off-color, raunchy jokes lobbed around the police station.

Allen remembered dates, names, faces, places, numbers, from 10 years back and longer. He'd hear a suspect's name and remember the last time the guy got arrested, 15 years ago. He remembered when the other cops graduated from the academy. It helped, probably, that he'd been around the station 27 years.

He was in charge of the coffee fund in the detectives squad room, and he made his weekly rounds collecting $2 from everyone.

He shared a desk with Detective John Coughlin Jr., who saw Allen's family pictures on the desk. Allen's family was his life, Coughlin said, and he worked long hours at the police station and part-time at the Whole Foods on Pitman Street to pay for his daughters' private schools.

"He'd work all the time -- drop of the hat, he'd be back," said Murray. "It was all for his kids."

JOHNSTON POLICE CHIEF Richard Tamburini, former deputy chief in Providence, remembers the day Allen was sworn in as a member of the Providence force, joining his father in the department.

"I vividly recall how proud his father was to see his son being sworn in," he said. And, "Jimmy was so excited to wear the badge of honor of the Providence Police, like his father did."

Tamburini said he visited with Allen's wife and daughters at their home yesterday morning. "They're coping. How do you cope with something like this?" He said he told Allen's wife to "muster up every bit of strength she has" because she "has two beautiful daughters that need her."

"He was just so accommodating, just a pleasure to be with," he said. He showed "his ability and honesty in everything that he did. It's just a sad day for all of us who carry a badge today to lose a guy like Jimmy Allen."

Allen graduated from the police academy in 1978. He became a decorated police officer who worked some of the biggest cases in the department.

Early in his career, in 1982, Allen and another officer at the time, Perry D. Wheeler, were accused of not providing medical treatment to an alcoholic who later choked to death on his own vomit after the officers left him.. They were convicted of manslaughter, but the Rhode Island Supreme Court overturned the verdict, saying that the accusations were mere "speculation," and that the trial judge should have acquitted the officers.

In 1987, Allen ran through a burning tenement house and evacuated several people who were sleeping inside. He received a "Chief's Award" for an outstanding act in the performance of duty, in 1989. He investigated the shooting of the Mount Hope substation, which led to the arrest of a young man who'd been lauded a hero for saving children in a house fire.

Mayor Cicilline said yesterday that "Jimmy Allen passed in the noblest way possibile. He gave his life trying to makes our lives safer. He died serving us. He died a hero. But that does not lessen the overwhelming sorrow and anger we feel today at the loss of a great man taken too soon."

With reports from Liz Anderson and W. Zachary Malinowski.