Providence police: Territorial dispute led to panhandler's fatal stabbing

PROVIDENCE — Police have charged a Lincoln man with fatally stabbing a panhandler in Providence on Monday in what authorities describe as a territorial dispute that escalated to murder.

Gary McConville, 42, is charged with murder in the stabbing death of Antonio Bryant, 51, of Providence, at the intersection of North Main Street and Cypress Street, Maj. David Lapatin said.

Police had originally taken two people into custody, but the other man was released without charges.

McConville appeared in court Tuesday afternoon, where he was ordered held without bail. He did not enter a plea on the felony murder charge. His attorney, Daniel Ciora, declined to comment.

Lapatin said the victim was panhandling at that intersection when McConville and the other man walked by. An argument about the location of the panhandling broke out, Lapatin said. McConville and Bryant got into a fight, Lapatin said, and McConville stabbed him, killing him.

McConville and the other man fled, but were later taken into custody by Sgt. Sean Comella and Patrolman Robert Carlin, Lapatin said.

Several members of Bryant's family were in attendance in court Tuesday afternoon, looking crestfallen as McConville was led into the room in shackles. After the brief arraignment, a woman sobbed in the hallway, comforted by other loved ones. Bryant's family declined to speak with reporters afterward.

The site of the stabbing is not far from where another panhandler was killed in an apparent dispute with another panhandler over territory in 2014. According to court records, John Cope pleaded no contest to manslaughter in the death of Erick Brandon, 78.