Police: Man shot in face in Federal Hill drive-by

PROVIDENCE — A 31-year-old Providence man was shot in the face late Monday in a drive-by attack in the Federal Hill neighborhood, authorities said.

Vladimir Soto, of Providence, and two other men, Lewis Black and Juan Oliver, were targeted on Bridgham Street between Carpenter Street and Westminster Street, said police Maj. David Lapatin.

The three men were in a car when another vehicle pulled up around 10 p.m. and shots were fired, he said.

The three young men, including Soto, left the vehicle and made their way down Carpenter Street and through some yards, leaving a trail of blood. They found someone to take them to the hospital.

Both Black and Oliver had cuts and lacerations caused either by bullet fragments, or glass or from bushes they brushed past as they sought help, Lapatin said.

Jae Kim was inside his apartment nearby and said he heard what he thought could have been a car or motorcycle backfiring several times.

He later saw police at a crime scene around a car with the front driver’s door open and blood visible inside.

The shooting capped a three-day weekend with two deaths, including one homicide and another fatality being treated as a suspicious death.

"We had a busy weekend," Lapatin said.