Two men and teen accused of assault on Park Avenue
WOONSOCKET – Bolt cutters, a windshield squeegee and a trash can were the weapons of choice when two adult males and a juvenile allegedly ganged up on a 31-year-old man at a Park Avenue gas station Saturday in a simmering feud over a drug deal gone bad.
Police arrested all three of the alleged aggressors at the scene of the chaotic melee, including Stacey Brumfield, 44, of Providence. He was charged with felony assault with a dangerous weapon – the bolt cutters
– and disorderly conduct.
Savvon Rahim Mitchell, 20, of 220 Logee St., and the juvenile, a 15-year-old boy, were charged with one count each of disorderly conduct. Mitchell was also charged with resisting arrest.
The incident unfolded at Gulf Express, 852 Park Ave., about 2:30 p.m., when the victim went inside the gas station to buy a drink. Moments later, police reports say, a man the victim recognized as Mitchell appeared in the store and asked him to come outside to talk.
As he was exiting the store, the victim told police, he saw three males, including Mitchell and Brumfield, coming after him. The victim told police he took a knife out of his pocket to defend himself, but never
used it – information later corroborated by CCTV camera footage supplied by the operators of the gas station.
As the victim hunkered down near the doorway of the store, hiding the knife behind his back, Brumfield allegedly hurled a squeegee at him, narrowly missing his head. The squeegee struck the facade of the gas station, however, breaking the glass door.
At some point, Brumfield came also after him with a pair of yellow bolt cutters, striking him several times – blows the victim managed to blunt with his hands. Police said he suffered minor injuries, but declined medical attention.
The juvenile picked up a trash can from the grounds of the service station and hurled it towards the victim during the episode, according to police.
The attack was apparently payback for a drug deal that left Mitchell feeling cheated. The details were sketchy, but police reports say the victim told investigators “he had purchased some marijuana from Mitchell about two months ago and the drug deal didn’t go well.”
Police described the resulting melee as a “chaotic scene” that drew at-
tention from a large number of passersby and disrupted traffic on Park Avenue Saturday – at least for a little while.
“As I was arriving, I noticed that traffic was backed up on Park Avenue in both directions, in the area of the Gulf Express,” said Officer Michael Martinsen. “I noticed that several customers were attempting to leave the parking lot, but could (not) due to the amount of people involved in a physical fight.”
Initial reports that one of the individuals involved was armed with a knife led police to detain the victim, briefly, but he was not charged with any crime. Police said they reviewed CCTV surveillance video of the incident that showed the victim “keeping the knife behind his back” during the entire episode.
“At no time during the video, it shows (the victim) using the knife,” Martinsen’s report says.
The judiciary’s web site says Brumfield and Mitchell are both on bail with open cases pending against them – in Brumfield’s case, a felony domestic assault that occurred in North Providence that dates back to January. Meanwhile, the city police arrested for Mitchell on another disorderly conduct charge in April.