AG: City police by the book during shootout
July incident saw Woonsocket officer injured; over 50 total rounds fired
WOONSOCKET — Five city police officers who traded gunfire with an armed suspect last month not only employed deadly force in a lawful and appropriate manner, they and the officers who backed them “exhibited tremendous restraint and professionalism,” Attorney General Peter Kilmartin has concluded.
The findings were released by Kilmartin Thursday in a detailed, 8-page synopsis of a multi-agency review of the July 2 incident in which Officer Travis Young was shot in the leg by Tyler Chandler, 22, of Portsmouth.
Among other things, the report reveals that Sergeant Matthew Richardson, Officers Zachary Bienkiewicz, Brandon Macedo, Daniel Wild and Young, fired a combined 38 rounds at Chandler, who fired “at least 11” rounds at them. Though most of the gunshots were fired in the span of an hour after Chandler was first spotted walking on Cumberland Street by another officer, Nicholas Maglio, at about 4:30 a.m., nearly five hours elapsed before Chandler was taken into custody in an operation that involved the heavily armed Special Response Team and state police. He suffered some minor injuries, including a black eye, but no gunshot wound.
“It is important to recognize that in this instance, although we focus upon the actions of officers who discharged their weapon, the members of the
Woonsocket Police Department exhibited extraordinary restraint and professionalism, which resulted in the subject being taken into custody with only minor injuries, which were the result of his own struggle with police,” Deputy Attorney General Gerald J. Coyne concluded.
In particular, Coyne continued, “the restraint shown by the Woonsocket Special Response Team, as well as the members of the Rhode Island State Police assisting them, should be commended.”
Coyne also singled out Officer Zachary Bienkiewicz for special praise, saying his actions “unquestionably saved the lives of other officers” on the morning in question.
Bienkiewicz’s actions are summarized in a section of the report that contains a detailed chronology of the episode.
After Maglio spotted Chandler toting a handgun while walking on Cumberland Street and called for backup, Richardson and Macedo pursued Chandler on foot, ordering him to stop. At that point Chandler turned and fired several shots at the officers, both of whom returned fire.
Officers lost sight of Chandler near 27 Gaulin Ave. for a time, but they eventually zeroed in on him in the vicinity of Gateway Commons, a condo complex at 685 Social St. A number of officers including Wild, Young and Bienkiewicz, set up a perimeter there.
A member of the SRT, Bienkiewicz was armed with a patrol rifle in addition to a sidearm.
While Wild and Young focused on the perimeter, Bienkiewicz saw Chandler “nonchalantly walking towards a vehicle parked in the rear of the condominiums,” the report says. At that point, Bienkiewicz shouted a warning to Young that the suspect was behind him, while simultaneously using his radio to alert the same information to other officers.
“The suspect continued to walk towards the vehicle, and after yelling something, he raised his handgun above the vehicle’s roof, and opened fire in the direction of Officer Young,” the report says. “Officer Young was struck in the leg.”
Despite the injury, Young returned three rounds. Upon observing Chandler firing, Bienkiewicz fired four more rounds in his direction, which caused him to retreat into the parking lot. In addition, Wild fired ten shots at the suspect, drawing Chandler’s attention away from
Young. Wild’s actions also caused Chandler to turn his attention toward him, drawing four rounds from Chandler.
After checking on Young’s condition, Bienkiewiciz pursued the suspect on foot, locating him in the parking lot, where Chandler fired another round at him before taking cover in between two parked cars.
The incident was investigated by a multi-agency team that included members of the Woonsocket Police Department, the state police and investigators from Kilmartin’s office. They concluded that “the use of deadly force by each of the aforementioned members of the Woonsocket Police Department was in full compliance with the law of the state of Rhode Island...as well as the law of self-defense.”
“Based upon the results of this investigation, it is not necessary to present this matter to a grand jury review, and this review of the use of deadly force is considered closed,” the report says.
Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III said he was pleased by the report, but he didn’t seem surprised.
“Obviously I believed all along our officers did a fantastic job in protecting each other and in taking the suspect into custody without causing him any serious injury,” said Oates. “I was very proud of the way everyone took their own particular action to bring this to a resolution that resulted in, unfortunately, just the injury to Officer Young.”
Sworn in as a policeman just a few months before the shooting, Young remains sidelined, with the round from Chandler’s 9mm semiautomatic handgun still lodged in his leg. But Oates said Young is making making progress and intends to return to duty.
The report says Chandler obtained the weapon legally, but he did not have a license to carry it outside of his home.
To capture Chandler, police set off a percussion grenade to distract him in the Gateway parking lot, then rushed him and took him to the ground.
Later, Chandler was arraigned on 13 felony counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, discharging a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence and other charges. He was ordered held without bail, but on July 31, after a court-ordered evaluation at the state psychiatric hospital, he was declared incompetent to stand trial.
“He remains in custody, and is scheduled to return to court for further competency review on January 9, 2019,” the report says.