Forum.RttP{Man arraigned in officer's death

apparently he jumped out a window near the AS220 as it says in the story...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_isl...arraigned_in_officers_death?pg=full

R.I. police beat up suspect, kin allege

By Jonathan Saltzman and John Ellement, Globe Staff | April 19, 2005

PROVIDENCE -- A white plastic mask obscuring his severely bruised face, Esteban Carpio, the man accused of fatally shooting a Providence detective inside police headquarters early Sunday, was arraigned yesterday on murder charges and ordered held without bail.
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Carpio, 26, was charged in Providence District Court with killing Detective James L. Allen with the officer\'s gun around 12 a.m. Sunday as the veteran officer questioned him about the stabbing of an 84-year-old woman.

Assistant Attorney General Paul Daly said in court that Carpio grabbed Allen\'s pistol in a third-story interview room, shot him twice, blew out a window with another gunshot, and jumped 60 feet to a grassy mound. He was captured after what police described as a violent struggle several blocks away, about 45 minutes later.

Carpio\'s relatives gasped when court officers led in the shackled man, his eyes red, swollen slits.

\'\'Oh, my God, look what they did to him,\" one of Carpio\'s relatives wailed, adding a vulgarity about the police officers.

Carpio\'s weeping mother, Yvonne Carpio, a teacher at Hennigan Elementary School in Jamaica Plain who lives in Roslindale, shouted, \'\'Steve, tell him not guilty,\" referring to Chief District Court Judge Albert E. DeRobbio. Esteban Carpio is called Steve by his family.

Court officers quickly grabbed several of the relatives by the arms, including Carpio\'s mother, and led them out of the courtroom as family members accused police of brutality. Carpio could be heard saying, \'\'I love you, Mom,\" but his words were muffled by the mask, which court officials said was a \'\'spit shield\" intended to protect others from blood and other fluids.

The back wall of the crowded courtroom was lined with police officers, including several detectives who glared at Carpio, a tattoo of a dragon on his left wrist.

Outside the courtroom, Carpio\'s uncle, Edward Thimas, expressed sorrow over the slaying of Allen, a 27-year veteran of the department. But Thimas said he was disgusted by the physical condition of his nephew. \'\'He\'s obviously been beaten very badly,\" Thimas said. He added that the family had tried repeatedly in recent days to get psychiatric care for Carpio, to no avail. Court documents said Carpio was a barber.

During a midafternoon news conference at police headquarters, Providence Police Chief Dean M. Esserman said Carpio was injured jumping out the window and in the struggle with law enforcement, near the AS220 art space downtown. Two State Police troopers, an FBI agent, and a Providence officer were the first to apprehend Carpio, and more police responded.

\'\'When I saw him, he was pretty cut up,\" said Esserman, who said he saw Carpio soon after his arrest. Esserman said he had no evidence that officers used excessive force, although he promised to review the matter after Allen\'s funeral, slated for Thursday.

Esserman also rebuffed questions about whether Allen had followed police procedures when he questioned Carpio alone without handcuffing him and while wearing his service pistol.

\'\'There is a time and place to look at all that happened, but that time and place is after Detective Allen is buried,\" said Esserman, who declined to provide details about the detective\'s wounds at the advice of prosecutors.

But Deputy Chief Paul Kennedy told reporters that police officers routinely interview potential suspects at the police station while wearing their pistols and without handcuffing them.

\'\'This man was not under arrest,\" Kennedy said. \'\'People aren\'t getting that.\"

Allen was interviewing Carpio about the stabbing of an elderly woman during an attempted holdup Saturday afternoon. Esserman said that he had urged Allen to pull out all the stops to find the culprit and that Allen agreed to work beyond his shift, which ended Saturday at 4 p.m., to question Carpio.

\'\'I\'m going to have to live with that,\" Esserman said.

Warwick Police Colonel Stephen McCartney, who worked with Allen when both were members of the Providence detective squad, said Allen appeared to be a victim of circumstance.

McCartney, basing his account on conversations with his former colleagues, said Allen was one of five detectives present when Carpio was being questioned. But then several left to investigate a double-shooting and another left to fetch Carpio the glass of water that he had requested. Ultimately, McCartney said, Carpio was left alone with him.

\'\'This was probably a very unique situation,\" McCartney said. \'\'Obviously, there are a lot of issues that should have raised officers\' safety antenna, but they only become red flags after the fact.\"

Carpio had been arrested several times in Rhode Island in recent years, including on two charges of domestic assault, in 2003 and 2004. Both charges were dismissed, according to court records.

Police detectives routinely find themselves in a \'\'big gray area\" like this -- between a simple interview and an actual interrogation of a suspect, said Peter Van Dyke, director of police training for Northwestern University\'s Center for Public Safety. Once you arrest and handcuff someone, he said, the cooperation ends.

Van Dyke said there is no national standard for when police officers should stow their weapon to protect themselves from someone who might try to grab it.

Allen, the 50-year-old son of a retired police captain, had worked a part-time job as a security guard at the Whole Foods Market on the city\'s East Side for the past 10 years. Allen, who had a down-to-earth manner, impressed workers with homespun stories about taking his daughters to father-daughter dances. He took the second job to pay for their private educations.

\'\'The way he talked about his girls, they were the light of his life,\" said Mary Jo Marks, the store manager.

Providence police Major Stephen Campbell said Allen\'s gentleness should not be mistaken for naïveté, cautioning against concluding that he may have been too trusting. \'\'He was a sharp detective who dealt with some of the most violent people in Rhode Island,\" Campbell said. \'\'He recognized the danger in the job.\"

Allen was the third Providence police officer killed in the line of duty since 1994. Firefighters yesterday draped the entrance of police headquarters with black bunting. Someone also erected a wooden cross, decorated with flowers, beneath the boarded-up third-story window. Glass shards still covered the grass.

\'\'Please remember this man,\" Esserman said, holding up a picture of Allen at the news conference, \'\'because we will.\"