Four days of crimes in the city begin with a pedestrian fatality and end in an early-morning bar stabbing that leaves two hospitalized.

09:13 AM EDT on Tuesday, April 19, 2005

BY GREGORY SMITH
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Even for a busy, midsized city, the police were forced to cope with an unusually bloody barrage Thursday night through early Sunday. Five people died violently.

The bloodshed began at about 9 p.m. Thursday, when Darnell Wise was struck and killed by a car as he crossed Manton Avenue, in Olneyville.

About 30 minutes later, Gladys Lopez, who was crossing Broad Street in South Providence to double-check the payout for a winning lottery ticket, was mowed down by a hit-and-run driver.

Then, shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, a parolee allegedly shot and stabbed to death his estranged common-law wife and a neighbor, believing that they were romantically involved. The slayings occurred at 11 Osborn St. in Smith Hill.

At 1:45 p.m. Saturday, Madeline Gatta, 84, of Swift Street, in the North End, was stabbed between the shoulder blades by a man who tried to take her pocketbook. She was released from the hospital yesterday.

Shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, the police were called to 131 Linwood Ave., in the West End, on a report of a shooting. Officers found Sunera Sok, 24, lying on the floor, bleeding from the head.

A witness, Chhann Chhoeun, 21, of 131 Linwood, said he and Sok, of 183 Wadsworth St., also in the West End, were sitting in Sok's parked car on Linwood Avenue when a car occupied by two men pulled up.

The witness said that the passenger called out, "Hey, what's going on," and fired a shot that hit Sok, who was sitting in the driver's seat, in the head. The shooter's car then sped away toward Cranston Street.

Sok was released from the hospital yesterday, according to Detective Lt. Hugh Clements.

Just after midnight on Sunday morning, Esteban Carpio, being questioned in the earlier stabbing of Madeline Gatta, allegedly overpowered police Detective James Allen in the detective bureau in the Public Safety Complex downtown, and shot him to death with his own gun.

Although he escaped from the building, Carpio was apprehended within the hour. Allen represents the fifth homicide in Providence this year.

When the Providence police, preoccupied with the manhunt for Carpio, got a call for another shooting at 12:30 a.m. Sunday, they needed help. The North Providence police and the state police were first on the scene at Garcia's Bar and Grill, 283 Smith St., Smith Hill.

Kevin Paulin, 20, of New Britain, Conn., had been shot in the left wrist and John Green, of 667 Smith St., had been shot in the torso, and both were taken to Rhode Island Hospital. Paulin was treated and released, but Green was listed in serious condition last night.

Bar bouncer Jeff Gelinas, 32, told the police he saw gunfire erupt from a sport-utility vehicle carrying three men.