A 27-year veteran of the Providence police force was shot and killed early yesterday inside his own police station with his own gun by a suspect he had been questioning about a knife attack, the Providence Journal reports. After twice shooting Detective James L. Allen, 50, the suspect, Esteban Carpio, 26, shot out the glass in a third-floor office window, jumped 30 feet to the ground and fled into downtown Providence, where he was captured after a violent struggle.
“This is our house,” said Detective John Murray Jr., who sat next to Allen in the detective’s squad room. “What are we going to do — burn the station down? How are we going to walk down that hall?” Officer Clarence Gough said, “This isn’t like someone who’s been murdered out on the street. This is where we spend most of our time when we’re not home. I spend more time in this house than I do in the one I bought and paid for. Now it’s not safe. If we can’t make this safe, where can we be safe?” Allen is the third Providence police officer killed on the job since 1994. “It is little consolation that a suspect has been apprehended,” said Police Chief Dean Esserman. “We’ve lost a remarkable man today and this city is the worse for it.” Police would not address questions yesterday about procedures for interrogating suspects and carrying weapons inside the stations.
Link: http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20050418_shoot18.22dbb9d.html