PROVIDENCE — An off-duty trooper who tried to stop a reckless driver from hitting pedestrians on a crowded downtown street is in critical condition after the driver sucker-punched him to the pavement.

Doyle

Trooper Brendan Doyle is being treated for severe head injuries at Rhode Island Hospital, where his family, friends, and fellow troopers and officers have been gathering since he was hurt early yesterday morning.

The man accused of punching him is a former correctional officer. James D. Proulx, 36, of Smithfield, is being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions for his arraignment tomorrow. Proulx is charged with felony assault and reckless driving.

State police Col. Brendan Doherty, who has been by the family’s side throughout the hospital vigil and who talked about Doyle’s condition, praised the 25-year-old trooper. “He’s an exemplary trooper. He’s a perfect gentleman,” Doherty said yesterday. “It’s a terrible situation. The trooper was trying to do the right thing.”

Doyle was out with friends at McFadden’s restaurant on Pine Street, Doherty said. At around 2 a.m. yesterday, as the bars and nightclubs were closing and sending people into the traffic-clogged streets, Doyle and his friends were walking down the street when they saw trouble.

A new black convertible BMW jumped the curb behind them and was weaving through the crowded street, according to the police. Doyle shouted to the driver that he was a state trooper and told him to stop. The man kept driving until the car suddenly screeched to a stop in traffic at Dorrance and Pine streets.

Doyle had his badge out and announced to the driver that he was a state trooper. He walked toward the window of the car to talk to the driver, Doherty said.

Then, the police said, Proulx got out of the car and punched Doyle in the face. The blow knocked Doyle backward, and he struck the back of his head on the pavement. Proulx sped off the wrong way down a one-way street, the police said, and disappeared.

Doyle lay in the middle of the street, motionless and bleeding badly from his head and mouth, as a Providence officer who’d happened to see the altercation came running.

The firefighters on Engine 3 and Rescue 4, at the Public Safety Complex just a few blocks away, were there in minutes. As the six firefighters pushed through the crowd, they saw people around Doyle, one man holding his hand.

Doyle was unconscious, Firefighter Anthony Toro said, and bleeding heavily from the back of his head, nose and mouth. As the police held back the crowd, firefighters worked fast, Toro said, starting advanced life support, sinking in two IVs, suctioning blood from his mouth and nose, putting him into a collar and board to protect his neck.

Four of the firefighters jumped into the back of the ambulance with Doyle, Toro said, still working on him as they sped to Rhode Island Hospital. The hospital’s team was ready when they pulled in about a minute later, Toro said.

The firefighters later realized that they’d met the young trooper during rescues at car accidents on the highway.

“The guy was basically trying to do his job,” Fire Lt. Stephen Capracotta said. “He was just trying to do the right thing.”

The BMW license plate led the police to Proulx’s door in Smithfield within a few minutes. The Smithfield police found the car in the driveway, its engine warm. The police said they arrested him without trouble.

Proulx is a solidly built man, weighing about 35 pounds more than Doyle, according to the Providence police. He’d been in the Smithfield police reserves, where his brother is an officer, and he had been a correctional officer years ago. He lives at 2 Danecroft Ave., which real-estate records show he recently sold to former Providence police officer David Ramage, who was fired last year for assaulting two women in downtown Providence.

Doyle is from a family of athletes — his father, Robert, is a six-time winner of the Ocean State Marathon and has the fastest time of any Rhode Islander in that race. His uncle is the track coach at Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick. The family had owned Doyle Sporting Goods in Pawtucket years ago.

Doyle is an avid runner who has placed and won races all over the state. Doyle was an All-Stater at St. Raphael Academy and a member of the All Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Team at Iona College, in New Rochelle, N.Y.

When Doyle became a state police trooper two years ago, he joined other troopers in benefit runs, including running the Boston Marathon in 2005 to raise money for the Fairlawn Early Learning Center, in Lincoln. He told a Journal reporter at the time that he was aspiring to qualify for the Olympic marathon trials over the next several years.

Doyle is also part of the family of state police officers — one uncle is a retired state police lieutenant, and another, Lt. Eric LaRiviere, is still serving, Doherty said.

Doyle works out of the Lincoln barracks and is known as a hard charger. A few months ago, he chased after a motorcyclist who’d been clocked at 108 mph on Route 146. When Doyle saw the biker stuck in downtown traffic, he got out of his car to stop him. The biker drove at Doyle, who fired a shot in self-defense. The uninjured biker was later caught hiding in an attic in Providence. A state investigative team found Doyle was justified in firing his weapon.

Doyle knows the city from the neighborhood patrols, which team state troopers with local officers during summer nights and holidays. Providence Officer Joseph Hanley III, who is his partner on the patrols, was at the hospital yesterday; they had become close friends.

Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman was there, too, early in the morning. “I apologized to [Colonel Doherty] and each one of the troopers there and their families that this horrible thing happened in our city,” Esserman said. More people arrived all day: Mayor David N. Cicilline, other troopers, Doyle’s former track coach from Iona College.

Doherty kept thinking about what Doyle’s mother had told him. On Friday, the young trooper had shown her a medal of St. Michael, the patron saint of police officers.

He told his mother he’d bought it to keep himself safe.

amilkovi@projo.com