Paintball shootings continue in city

PROVIDENCE — Police are continuing to deal with a spate of paintball shootings, recently arresting an 18-year-old who’d just gotten locked up on charges of breaking into a concession stand at the Roger Williams Park Zoo.

The incidents, which police say increase every year around Halloween, have resulted in several arrests and the seizure of a number of paintball guns and paintballs. Some people have been injured by the paintballs.

One of the most recent incidents came early Saturday, when police responded to Smith and Esten Streets for a report of kids shooting people with paintballs out of a silver SUV.

Witnesses and victims told police that people in a Honda Pilot were firing paintballs, hitting one person in the left arm and the chest. Another person told police that the suspects were at a 7-Eleven on Smith Street shooting paintballs at one another and at the windows of the store.

Police found the Honda Pilot and searched it, finding three paintball guns, five air compressors, a bag of paintballs, three knives, three box cutters, a digital scale and three bags of what appeared to be marijuana.

Police charged Devonte Flynn, 18. Flynn had also been charged with breaking into the Wilderness Cafe at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, according to court records; his name is spelled differently in that court record, as Davonte, but the birthdate, address and lawyer are the same in both court records.

Flynn lied to officers about his name and age, police said. He was charged with obstructing an officer and felony assault, court records show. Another suspect, a juvenile, was turned over to family.

Also Saturday, two women told police they’d been shot with paintballs while standing outside the Graduate hotel, formerly the Biltmore, in downtown Providence. One of the victims, police said, was the ex-girlfriend of the suspect, Shelena Richardson, 33.

Police later took Richardson into custody and charged her with felony domestic assault.

On Oct. 15, police arrested five people on charges of firing across a highway and disorderly conduct after reports of several people firing paintball guns on Fillmore Street. Police saw a car crash and five to 10 people on foot firing paintballs at each other.

Police pulled over a Ford Expedition involved in the incident and found three paintball guns, three air tanks, three paintball masks and several hundred paintballs. Griffin Garcia, 23, Perrion Towns, 19, Kyron Lopes, 21, Alexander Cardarelli, 19, and Angel Henriquez, 20, were arrested and charged. All pleaded not guilty.

Incidents have also been reported along Eddy Street on Oct. 17 and on Thurbers Avenue by Burger King the same day. A boy who was hit in that incident will need stitches between his eyes, police said.