By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
A 41-year old man found dead in his apartment in the Smith Hill neighborhood of Providence early Sunday is the eighth homicide victim of the year in the capital, and while police have not yet released his identity, they were questioning a suspect and do not believe the public is in danger.
“We will say the crime, the murder was a gruesome scene,” said Providence Police detective commander Major David Lapatin.
“We have been working around the clock,” Lapatin told reporters shortly after 10:00 Monday morning. “Just about 20 minutes ago a suspect was taken into custody. I’ll just stress that right now, a suspect. Detectives are questioning him, and we’ll see where that leads us.”
He would not immediately identify the suspect or the victim, who is believed to be from Pakistan, and did not arrive for his shift working in a local market. Lapatin said officers conducting a ‘well-being check’ discovered the victim’s body, inside his 123 Jewett Street apartment at about 1:30 Sunday morning.
Police have been in touch with the victim’s family, and believe he died of blunt force trauma, but are awaiting results of an autopsy before discussing the cause of his death.
Police would not say whether the victim was targeted, but do not believe the public needs to be worried about a random killer.
“We don’t think that there should be concern, we think that it’s isolated, that’s as far as I’ll go,” said Detective Captain Timothy O’Hara. “We just think that it was an isolated incident at this point in the investigation.”
