WARWICK -- Alfred "Freddie" Bishop, the notorious criminal released from prison less than a year ago after serving 33 years for murder, was ordered held without bail this afternoon after being arraigned on seven charges related to the murder of a Warwick man last month.

But few details about what happened last month came out during arraignment. Judge William Clifton laid out the charges, the prosecutor said little, and the judge ordered no bail.

Bishop, 65, of 61 Hollywood Ave., also said little at his Kent County District Court arraignment at which several of the 15 or so family members of victim Gabriel Medeiros wore shirts bearing the name "Gabe."

In a statement last night, Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney announced the charges against Bishop, whom, he said, shot Medeiros and two relatives during a June 28 burglary, entering the house at 43 Warwick Lake Ave. while the family slept.

Police sketch, left / Journal file photo
A police sketch of the suspect in the murder; Bishop as he appeared at his release from prison last August.

Bishop had actually been in police custody since early July 3, when he was arrested at a relative's house in Warwick for violating the terms of his parole.

At that time, Warwick Police Chief Stephen McCartney refused to say what Bishop had done to violate his parole or what led detectives to him.

“Following a comprehensive and thorough investigation, we have now drawn an arrest warrant in this case,” McCartney said in last night’s statement.

Described by the police for decades as a dangerous man with violent tendencies, Bishop had been jailed in 1973 for the murder of a friend, James Dunn.

He was said to have shot Dunn repeatedly through the living room window of Dunn’s house. For that murder, Bishop became the second-longest serving inmate in the history of the Adult Correctional Institutions.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Cynthia Needham and Journal archival reports

The June 28 incident occurred just after midnight when Caesar Medeiros, 43, awoke to the sound of his dog barking and noises coming from the front of the his ranch-style house in the Hoxsie neighborhood.

When he got up to investigate, the police say, he was confronted outside his bedroom door by a masked man who carried a nickel-plated handgun and may have walked in through an unlocked front door.

The police said Caesar Medeiros, 43, was shot in the arm. Moments later, his wife, Claire, 39, was shot in the leg.

Caesar’s brother, Gabriel Medeiros, 35, of 43 Warwick Lake Ave., who was living with the couple, tried to charge at the assailant. He was shot in the chest and died a short time later, the police said.

Before the patrolmen arrived, the suspect ran out the back door of the house and disappeared in the normally quiet neighborhood behind the Warwick school administration building and St. Timothy Church off Warwick Avenue.

The police initially described the assailant as clean shaven and between 5’8” and 5’10” with red hair sprinkled with salt and pepper. They later said that description of his hair color may have been inaccurate, with the red perhaps due to blood.

After today's arraignment, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, who had sat in the front row in the courtroom, said: "The fight is on and we're ready to go."

Bishop was represented by lawyer Paul DiMaio.

At the ACI after his conviction in the Dunn murder, it appeared that Bishop dominated inmates and guards alike, eventually being shipped to prisons out of state to stem the problems. He was released from prison last August, having spent more than half his life in jail. He was placed on parole and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for his first six months of freedom.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Cynthia Needham, and projo.com staff writers Kate Bramson and Michael McKinney