Busted: Stolen RI Police Cruiser Suspect

CUMBERLAND, RI — Donald Morgan, the suspect who took off in a state police cruiser Thursday morning and ignited a series of events that ended with one man dead in a hail of bullets near the Providence Place mall, was found and arrested Friday, state police said. Morgan, 35, who does not have a regular address, was caught in Cumberland, according to Col. Ann C. Assumpico. The Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force made the arrest.

He is being held overnight pending arraignment on Saturday, she said.

Details of the arrest will be announced at a news conference at 11 a.m. Saturday at Rhode Island State Police Headquarters, 311 Danielson Pike, Scituate, Rhode Island, she said.

In explaining how the cruiser was stolen, Assumpico said Morgan had been arrested Wednesday on charges of obstruction and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. On Thursday morning, police put him in the cruiser to take him to court. On the way, along Route 146, other motorists got into an accident. The trooper stepped out of the cruiser to check on them. Morgan, left alone and handcuffed in the vehicle, took off.

“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.”

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.

Then, a white truck, which ran from Cranston police, was identified as a vehicle that might be connected to Morgan. Police swarmed it on I-95 near the Providence Place mall. The driver, Joseph Santos, was killed by police. Providence police fire 20 rounds and state police fired 20.

Many unanswered questions remain about the connection, if any, police said Friday, between Morgan, and Santos, 32, the man who died in the Providence shooting, or Santos's passenger, Christine Demers, 37. Providence police alluded to a possibility Morgan could have been riding in the Santos pickup truck, as Cranston police believed when they chased it Friday morning to the Providence line. But they had not been yet able to interview Demers, who survived the shooting but was still believed to be at Rhode Island Hospital.

At a press conference Friday, police defended the use of deadly force against Santos because they said he was ramming other cars with his truck, posed a public threat and did not stop even when pinned with no where to go.

Associated Press contributed to this story.