‘No regard for human safety’: Police chief says 7 people remain hospitalized from Rhode Island shooting

Seven of the nine people who were injured in Thursday’s shooting in Providence, Rhode Island, remained hospitalized Friday, the city’s police chief said.

The shooting that began shortly before 7 p.m. on Thursday at a house was between two feuding groups who know each other, Providence Chief of Police Hugh Clements said. It has been determined by authorities that the shooting was targeted, not random.

Four people inside a Dodge Ram truck drove up to a residence porch that had five or six people on or near it, Clements said. Guns drawn, the people left the truck and fired at least 40 rounds from their pistols and semi-automatic pistols, he said.

At least two people on the porch fired back, Clements said, sending the four who initiated the gunfire back into the truck.

At least three of the injured were dropped off at a hospital using the truck, and police recovered it near there after it was ditched, Clements said.

Three of the seven who are still being treated at Rhode Island Hospital are in critical condition, and four are in stable condition, Clements said Friday during a press conference. The four people who were in the truck are under guard by the police department so they can be taken into custody upon their release, Clements said.

A search warrant on the house where the shooting happened led authorities to six pistols and two rifles, and between 50 and 60 casings were picked up, Clements said. He added that in 2017, a search warrant was executed on the same house with some of the same individuals, and they recovered five pistols and five rifles.

“This is ongoing. These are groups, individuals that know each other extremely well. These are not gangs in the sense of red and blue, Crips and Bloods,” Clements said. “These are groups of young men in the community who easily have access to firearms and exact their revenge on each other.”

Clements said Thursday that the two groups are known to police and are part of two feuding groups. The ages of those in the shooting range from 19 to 25, he added. Only one patient was taken to Rhode Island Hospital on Thursday by ambulance while the remaining arrived in private vehicles.

“It’s all senseless, it’s just the cycle of violence that has gone on for years, couple of years with these two groups, and this was clearly targeted, it was not random… There is no regard for human safety and human life,” Clements said Friday.