Woonsocket Man Admits to Robbery Spree, Shooting

WOONSOCKET, RI—Zachary Alvarado, 20, admitted in Superior Court today that he committed multiple robberies of Metro PCS stores across the city and shot four people outside Aly's Riverside Pub last year.

Alvarado, who has been held since his arrest last year on multiple charges, will be sentenced on June 1.

According to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin, had the case gone to trial, prosecutors were ready to prove that Alvarado robbed the same Metro PCS store on Main Street in Woonsocket on March 5, April 2 and April 27. In the last incident, he fired a gun into the air.

On June 13, Alvarado robbed the Metro PCS store on Social Street. During that robbery, he fired the gun into the front desk of the store.

Then, on June 19, Alvarado, armed with a .22 caliber Luger, shot four people standing outside Aly's Riverside Pub.

He fled, but turned himself in to police the next day.

Police found matching shell casings at both the Metro PCS stores and River Street near the pub. Victims of the robberies were also able to identify Alvarado as the culprit, Kilmartin said.

Woonsocket Police Detectives Kevin Sanford and Thomas Gormley investigated the case and Special Assistant Attorneys General Peter Roklan and Joseph McBurney prosecuted the case on behalf of the Office of Attorney General.

Alvarado, who was 19 at the time of his arrest, Woonsocket, was charged with four counts of first-degree robbery, five counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, six counts of discharge of a firearm while in the commission of a crime of violence, two counts of discharge of a firearm while in the commission of a crime of violence and three counts of possession of a firearm without a license.

All four shooting victims suffered non life-threatening injuries, police said.

The owner of the pub said that he watched a surveillance video that showed a group of people involved in an altercation that appears to have started across the street at a different bar.

“A car stopped in the middle of the road here on River Street. People got out, they were yelling at a car sitting in the parking lot. Next thing you know, some guy got out of that car, waving a gun. People started to run and he just started shooting,” Tom Bouckaert said.