Providence Place Mall: Officer Involved Shooting: Updated

PROVIDENCE, RI — One person is dead and one has been injured after a midmorning chase and shootout involving several police officers. It happened around 10:45 a.m. on Interstate 95 near Downtown Providence. Police are still investigating the shooting and have not identified the victims, except to say the man who died was driving a white pickup, and the woman, who was hurt, was a passenger. She was taken to Rhode Island Hospital in serious condition, Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said.

Senior prosecutors from the state attorney general’s office were also on scene, which is protocol for any officer-involved shooting, according to the office.

Pare also said they’re reviewing footage from body cameras the responding officers were wearing. No officers were hurt.

“We are actively investigating all the circumstances. There are multiple officers involved in the shooting, and we have one person that is deceased,” Pare said.

Video posted online from witnesses show the driver of a white pickup trading gunfire with numerous police officers as it was trapped in by other cars. The truck sat riddled with bullets on the road Thursday afternoon as police swarmed over the highway looking for shell casings.

According to police, several officers were chasing the white pickup truck when the shooting started near the downtown and the Providence Place mall.

It was the second incident in a chaotic morning that started around 9 a.m. when a cruiser was stolen at a traffic stop on Route 146. State police said a suspect being taken to court was left in the car alone. He stole it, and abandoned it in South Providence. A manhunt followed. Then, the shootout happened less than two hours after the cruiser disappeared.

Police initially said the shooting and theft were related, but then said later Thursday that the man who stole the police cruiser is not the same man who got into the shootout.

Authorities still are searching for Donald Morgan, who is wanted for stealing the cruiser, said State Police Col. Ann Assumpico. He was being transported to court and was left alone and handcuffed in the vehicle when the trooper stepped out to check on an accident, she said.

“I know the trooper did leave the vehicle for a short time,” she told reporters. “I want to sort through it. ... You have to understand, when we come upon an accident on the highway, it is our duty to check on the welfare of the people.”

Morgan, 35, was arrested Wednesday on charges of obstruction and possession of a stolen motor vehicle, Assumpico said.

The cruiser was found within the hour abandoned in Providence after police tracked it there with the car’s GPS system, but the thief was not located. Police launched a search throughout the neighborhood and were seen searching house-to-house with rifles and dogs.

Associated Press contributed. Patch will update this story.

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