Osorio

PROVIDENCE — A city man who was charged last year with spitting into the face of a female teacher at Hope High School is now named in an arrest warrant that charges him with using a knife to slash the neck of a security guard at Providence Place mall.

Anthony Osorio, 19, who was quoted as telling the police at the high school that his ambition is to be a serial killer, is charged in the warrant with two counts of felony assault with a dangerous weapon.

The police, who announced the warrant yesterday, alleged that Osorio accompanied two shoplifters and a third man to the mall Sunday afternoon. Osorio attacked a guard on the mall promenade just outside the J.C. Penney store as two guards attempted to detain one of the male shoplifters, the police said.

As they did Monday, detectives again appealed to the public for help in finding the suspect.

At Hope High School, where he was an 18-year-old student, Osorio was charged with misdemeanor simple assault for allegedly having spit into the face of a teacher in January 2007. The teacher, with saliva on her face and shirt, reported the assault to a uniformed policeman called a school resource officer.

When the officer asked Osorio why he did it, the police said Osorio replied that he is a disgusting human being. The officer probed further, and Osorio was quoted in a police report as having replied that his ambition is to be a serial killer because he does not like people, that he is evil, and that he wants to kill by strangulation with piano wire.

The court disposition of the spitting charge was not available last night.

As for the slashing, the police gave the following account: A guard noticed two men shoplifting in the second-floor sock and underwear department, placing clothing in a department store shopping bag. When one of the men left the store, a guard confronted him.

A second guard, identified as Spencer Jones, 24, moved to assist the first guard, but Osorio came up behind Jones, about 15 feet outside the J.C. Penney entrance, grabbed him and cut him on the left side of his neck with a black-handled folding knife, the police alleged.

Osorio then menaced the first guard with his knife, and the guard backed away, the police alleged. All four suspects escaped. Jones was treated at Rhode Island Hospital.

The police publicized video from surveillance cameras Monday and asked for the public’s help in identifying the suspects. As a result of a news report broadcast on TV, a citizen gave what Detective Capt. Hugh T. Clements Jr. called a vital tip to Patrolman Alex Gonzalez, who patrols Silver Lake, where Osorio is said to hang out.

Detective Sgt. James Marsland and Detectives William Mattera and Timothy McGann worked with that tip and other information and identified Osorio as the slasher, according to Clements. The police yesterday made public a mug shot of the suspect and asked that anyone who sees him call the Police Department.

“We know everyone involved” by name, Clements said of the four men, but Osorio is the only suspect for whom a warrant has been issued.

gsmith@projo.com