Esteban Carpio was in handcuffs in his cell when he attacked correctional officers, the state police say.

09:45 AM EDT on Thursday, April 28, 2005

BY AMANDA MILKOVITS
Journal Staff Writer

CRANSTON -- The man charged with killing a Providence police detective last week is now accused of assaulting three correctional officers on Tuesday, leaving one with a broken jaw and injured neck.

Esteban Carpio, 26, was in handcuffs when he attacked the officers after they tried to stop him from eating a blanket in his cell, according to the state police.

One guard ended up with a broken jaw, bruised eye socket and possibly broken vertebrae in his neck, said state police Maj. Steven O'Donnell. Another suffered a hyperextended thumb, and Carpio spat in the face of a third officer, O'Donnell said.

The state police are charging Carpio with three felony assaults, which he'll face when he appears in court Monday for a bail hearing on the murder charge.

Carpio has been held without bail in segregation at the intake center of the Adult Correctional Institutions since being arrested in the slaying of Detective Sgt. James L. Allen on April 17.

The Providence police said that Carpio was being questioned at headquarters about a stabbing when he suddenly attacked Allen and grabbed his gun, shooting and killing him, and then blasting out a third-story window, from which he jumped. Carpio was caught less than an hour later on a downtown street, after a violent struggle with Providence police, state troopers, and an FBI agent working with the police.

Since ending up at the ACI, Carpio has had other instances of unruly behavior, such as clogging up his toilet and chewing on his mattress -- "nothing that required intervention," O'Donnell said. He was also "verbally abusive" with the staff on Monday, according to a spokeswoman at the Department of Corrections.

Tuesday was the first time Carpio fought with correctional officers.

The trouble began at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, when an officer noticed that Carpio was eating his blanket in his cell.

The officer called a lieutenant, who went with him and two other officers to Carpio's cell, said Joy Fox, spokeswoman at the Department of Corrections. Carpio was ordered to "cuff up" -- put his hands through a slot in the metal door to be handcuffed -- and then sit on the bed, she said. He complied and was quiet, she said.

The officers opened the cell door to retrieve the blanket. They went in with a protective shield, and the lieutenant carried pepper spray, Fox said.

The first officer went in as Carpio appeared calm.

"We believe he [Carpio] lured him in," O'Donnell said.

Without warning, Carpio suddenly swung his handcuffed hands and hit the first officer with an uppercut that broke his jaw, and then smacked him in the face, bruising his eye socket, O'Donnell said. Another officer injured his thumb trying to subdue Caprio, O'Donnell said.

"He [Carpio] attempted to strangle one of the officers, but it never got that far," Fox said.

Carpio fought with the officers, but he was subdued when the lieutenant streamed pepper spray into his face, O'Donnell said.

Carpio was led to a decontamination site to wash the pepper spray out of his eyes. Carpio then spat into the face of another correctional officer, O'Donnell said.

Carpio is charged with felony assault, assault on a correctional officer, and assault with bodily fluid. The first charge carries a sentence of 1 to 20 years in prison, the latter has a maximum of five years' imprisonment, O'Donnell said.

Carpio is being held in the medical wing of the intake unit, a smaller area that offers continuous monitoring by officers and video cameras, Fox said. Last night he was in restraints attaching him to the bed, she said.

"We placed him in the highest security risk group," she said.

Carpio suffered minor injuries during the fight with the officers, Fox said. One of the cuts on his face from his arrest last week reopened, but was treated by the ACI medical staff, she said.

When Carpio was arraigned for murder last Monday, his face was swollen, his eyes blackened, and his cuts oozed blood. The lower half of his face was covered with a flexible white plastic mask called a "spit shield."

At the time, correctional officials said the mask is used on inmates who are bleeding and may be combative and likely to spit.

His appearance shocked observers in the court, particularly his family, who screamed about police brutality.

Providence Police Chief Dean M. Esserman said Carpio fought violently with officers as they arrested him the night Allen was killed.

The FBI is leading an investigation into whether officers used excessive force during Carpio's capture.

Digital Extra: Keep up with coverage of the shooting of Providence Detective Sgt. James L. Allen, and its aftermath, in stories, photos and multimedia reports, at:

http://projo.com/extra/2005/detectiveallen/