Stabbing injures city man; two arrested
WOONSOCKET — A 54-year-old man repeatedly stabbed another man in the chest during a drunken argument Sunday, seriously injuring the victim, police said.
Arturo Sanchez of 242 Burnside Ave., Apt. 3F, was charged with domestic assault with a deadly weapon in a dwelling house and domestic disorderly conduct shortly after 12:30 p.m.
Police declined to identify the victim, except that he was a 38-year-old man who shared the apartment with Sanchez and the boyfriend of Sanchez’s niece, Aisha Milagros Rivera.
Rivera, 35, lives at 354 Providence St., but she was at the Burnside Avenue apartment at the time of the stabbing, according to police. She, too, was arrested after the incident – on a charge of being a fugitive from authorities in Oxford County, Maine, where she is wanted for aggravated operation of a motor vehicle following the revocation of a license, according to police reports. Maine statute defines the crime as driving after revocation during the commission of another motor vehicle offense.
Detective Lt. Brad Scully said both men were under the influence of alcohol and crack cocaine when they began artguing and Rivera’s boyfriend allegedly threatened Sanchez. That’s when Sanchez allegedly grabbed a knife from the kitchen and went after the victim, stabbing him in the chest three times.
One of the wounds punctured a lung and required emergency surgery at Rhode Island Hospital. The victim kwas later admitted as a patient and remains in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit, according to Scully.
Police reports say Sanchez initially told police he stabbed Rivera’s boyfriend in self-defense and that Sanchez was angry with him because he was “always beating up his niece.”
But police said Sanchez’s actions were not self-defense because he chose to arm himself with a weapon and escalate the conflict after the victim allegedly threatened him.
Rivera was the first person police encountered when they arrived at Sanchez’s apartment for a report of a stabbing. Police said she was walking out the side door of the residence when she saw Patrol Office Patrick Roy and uttered, “I hope there is an ambulance coming.”
The victim was sitting on the kitchen floor and bleeding from the chest when Roy entered the apartment. Police later found a bloody knife in the kitchen sink and saw bloodstains on a bed.
Arturo was taken to Landmark Medical Center to be treated for a cut on his hand.
Rivera vanished from the scene, but police located her minutes later walking at the intersection of Robinson Street and Wood Avenue. Police said she had blood on her sneakers but told officers she didn’t witness the stabbing and did not know why it happened. She told police she was walking to Landmark Medical Center because she thought her boyfriend would be taken there.
Rivera had scratches on her nose, chest and arm, but police said she was “vague on how she received the injuries.”
After running a routine check for warrants on Rivera police discovered she was wanted for the motor vehicle infraction in Maine.
During an appearance in Sixth District Court on Monday, Sanchez entered no plea to the felony assault charges and a judge set bail at $2,000, but he was also charged as a violator of his probation on a March 25, 2016, conviction dfor felony shoplifting out of Pawtucket, according to the judiciary’s database.
Sanchez had has numerous contacts with law enforcement dating back to 1991. In recent years, most of the charges filed against him, by several different law enforcement agencies in the area, are for habitual shoplifting and rfelony shoplifting. t In 2014, Sanchez made the Warwick Police Department’s “Most Wanted” list after he and another individual were seen pushing two loaded shopping carts out of a Walmart store without paying. He was later arrested for shoplifting in that case.
He is due back in court for another hearing on the assault charges on May 7.