One woman injured, police describe chaotic scene as 'bedlam'

Pawtucket Police investigate a shooting on Harrison Street on Wednesday night. Times photo/Butch Adams

By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN 

PAWTUCKET – Police are combing the city for information and clues as to the suspects who fired multiple shots toward the front doors of a Harrison Street apartment complex, injuring a woman and possibly one other individual, on Wednesday at around 9:30 p.m.

The shooting shattered the glass double doors of the multi-unit apartment complex at 136 Harrison St. and sent a woman, and, police believe, another individual, who had been apparently sitting on the front steps, running out the back door. It also caused panic at a large party in an apartment on the third floor that was attended by about 40 teens, and prompted many of the youths to spill out onto the sidewalk.

According to Police Major John Whiting, detectives and officers in several departments are still working to piece together an incident that he described as “bedlam.”

“The people who were shot at and the people at the house party emptied out at the same time,” he said.

Whiting also said that the investigating officers have been confronted with many conflicting stories and various versions of the events surrounding the incident, and have had to dismiss many of them. “We’ve had dozens of leads and have conducted dozens of interviews. We have virtually every officer in detectives, the youth bureau and our special squad working on this,” he said. “It’s still an ongoing investigation.”

Whiting said that, after the initial call came in about shots being fired, the one or more individuals who had been sitting on the steps ran, along with others inside the apartment house. Some of them ran through the glass doors that had been broken out by the gun blasts. He said that, based on witness accounts, police believe the shots were fired by one or more suspects who were standing across the street from the apartment house, and who then fled in a dark colored vehicle.

Whiting said that the woman and an alleged companion ran out the back door of the apartment house toward Capital Street. Police found the woman, who was bleeding from a leg injury, and had her transported to the Memorial Hospital. While it was initially thought her injury was from flying glass, it was found that she had metal bullet fragments in her leg, and was transferred to Rhode Island Hospital.

The woman, who Whiting declined to identify, was treated for the non-life threatening wound. She was later released, but was found to have an outstanding arrest warrant on an unrelated matter, so was taken  into custody, said Whiting.

Whiting said that police believe there was another person injured in the incident because there was blood and other evidence that someone had scaled a fence at the rear of the apartment house. Police also found a trail that indicated someone was bleeding from a wound on the next few streets over from where the crime occurred. He said, however, that from the amount of blood loss, it didn’t appear that this injury was life-threatening.

Whiting said that the participants attending the third-floor party were interviewed, and police do not think it had any relationship to the shooting. He said that police believe the shooting was likely linked to the occupants of a first floor apartment.

According to descriptions given to the police by witnesses immediately following the incident, the suspects were described as a thin black male, wearing a white tank-style undershirt, and a light skinned male with his hair in dreadlocks.

Anyone with information regarding the crime is asked to call the Pawtucket Police at 727-9100.