Man arrested after alleged 36-hour crime spree through city
WOONSOCKET — A brief but prolific crime spree that allegedly included an armed home invasion, an assault and breaks into at least four motor vehicles ended Friday when the suspect was found hiding in a pool box on the same street where the crimes began about 36 hours earlier.
Sean O’Connor, 25, was arrested at gunpoint at 91 Gauthier Drive about
8:30 a.m., after a woman who lives there called the police for help. She noticed some items around her pool were out of place, and while she was out checking, her dog started
barking in a way that seemed unusual, according to police reports.
As the woman led Officer Scott Breguet and Officer Christopher Bouvier on a tour of her backyard, she saw a shod foot sticking out from the lid of her pool box.
“He’s there! He’s in the box!” the woman yelled.
Officers drew their weapons and ordered the culprit to come out, but he refused. Breguet went over to the box, opened the lid and wrestled O’Connor from the storage container.
They immediately recognized him because he’d earned a spot on the roll-call readoff list before their shift started by becoming a suspect in a series of thefts and other crimes, some of which occurred the previous day in the same neighborhood.
About 6:15 p.m. Thursday, the police had been called to 22 Hillview Ave. – just a few hundred yards through the woods from Gauthier Drive – where a man told them someone broke into two Jeeps in his garage. The owner, who was home at the time, went looking for the suspect, when a neighbor approached him with items from his wife’s purse, asking if he’d been robbed. The neighbor told him he’d seen a man fitting O’Connor’s description throw them away as he fled into the woods.
The man later did an inventory of the vehicles and listed two purses, a laptop computer and prescription glasses among the missing property, which he said was worth more than $2,500.
Before officers cleared the scene, they were approached by two more homeowners who told them their vehicles had been broken into. One lived at 24 Hillview Ave., another at 497 Jillson Ave. One was only missing some spare change, the other, a flashlight and some pay stubs.
The police brought a K-9 to the area in attempts to track down the suspect, to no avail.
Earlier the same day – at about 3:20 p.m. – the police had taken a complaint of an armed home invasion at 19 Hamlet Ave. from a man who identified O’Connor as the perpetrator by name. The complainant was identified in a police report only as O’Connor’s stepbrother.
The stepbrother told police that O’Connor and an unidentified male companion, armed with a gun and wearing a bandanna, forced their way into his apartment, beat him bloody and made off with his wallet, which had $150 in it. O’Connor was armed with a knife during the incident, in which the two men said they were looking for someone named “Matt” and expressed keen interest in a cell phone.
The violent intruders fled when he threatened to call the police, he said.
About 4:20 a.m. Friday, police say O’Connor broke into two more cars at 130 Gauthier Drive. This time, the owner of the vehicles allegedly caught O’Connor in the act and got into a physical altercation with him.
O’Connor managed to elude the man, who chased him on foot before he escaped into the woods. As the victim was chasing O’Connor, the alleged crook told him he had a gun and appeared to be reaching into his waistband as he threatened to shoot him and “your whole house” if he didn’t stop following him, according to police reports.
The man later found a $300 pair of Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses and a checkbook missing from one of his vehicles.
When police finally captured O’Connor in the pool box, they say he was in possession of two vials of prescription tranquilizers, including Alprazolam and Clonazapam.
He was arraigned in Sixth District Court on seven charges, including two counts each of possession of a controlled substance and larceny under $1,500; breaking and entering into a dwelling house without the owner’s consent; simple assault and battery; and disorderly conduct.
He was ordered held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions for violating his probation an charges pending since January, including fraudulent use of a credit card; receiving stolen property; and other offenses.
O’Connor, of 228 Dulude Ave., Apt. 3, is due back in court for a review hearing on Aug. 6.