NEWS

Public safety chief: Providence cop who drove toward protesters was trying to assist fellow officer in distress

Madeleine List
mlist@providencejournal.com
A scene from a video of the incident on July 25.

PROVIDENCE– Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré said Thursday that a Providence police officer who drove his cruiser toward a line of demonstrators during a late-night protest on July 25 was attempting to respond to another officer calling for help further down the street.

Video from the night of the protest shows a police cruiser lurching toward a line of protesters, who were standing arm-in-arm blocking the street, and stopping just short of hitting them.

“We reviewed the video and the radio transmissions and the officers were attempting to come to the assistance of other officers who were calling for assistance,” Paré said.

The officers were responding to fellow officers in an unmarked vehicle who had called for help after protesters surrounded their vehicle and were pelting it with objects while attempting to gain access, Paré said.

“Then protesters got in [the] way [of the responding cruiser] and wouldn't allow them to proceed," he said. “So we had to get other cars from other directions to come to the aid of the officers."

The video of the cruiser driving toward protesters sparked an outcry from many who said that it appeared to be an attempt to threaten the protesters. Marah Nagelhout, one of the protesters standing directly in front of the vehicle as it drove toward them, called the experience terrifying.

Paré said that was not the motivation of the officer driving the cruiser.

“I know the appearance looks like an attempt to intimidate protesters who were protesting in the street, but that wasn’t the case,” he said.

mlist@providencejournal.com

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