By ELIZABETH ZUCKERMAN
The Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A Providence police detective was fatally shot while questioning a suspect inside department headquarters early Sunday, the mayor’s office said.
A suspect was in custody in the shooting of 27-year veteran James Allen, Mayor David Cicilline’s office said in a statement. The suspect was not identified and additional details were not disclosed.
According to WLNE-TV, the suspect overpowered Allen, took his gun and shot him twice in the abdomen. The man, who reportedly was a suspect in an unrelated stabbing, then shot out a third-floor window and fled through it. He was apprehended soon after.
Authorities cleared the building after the shooting, and in the early hours of the morning, officers huddled in the parking lot, talking and exchanging hugs and handshakes. Local police were joined by state troopers, and officers blocked access to streets and sidewalks around the complex.
Visitors to the building have been required to pass through a metal detector since last fall, shortly after man carrying a loaded gun walked into the building’s lobby and told an officer he might hurt himself or someone else. Officers were able to disarm him, and no one was hurt.
The last time a city police officer was shot to death was in January 2000, when Sgt. Cornel Young Jr., off duty and in plain clothes, was killed by fellow officers who mistook him for a suspect.