Gunman in Westerly shooting had troubled past, according to police

WESTERLY Residents of Babcock Village struggled Friday to comprehend the violence that invaded their lives a day earlier, when a tenant gunned down one of the facility’s managers, killing her, and seriously wounded two other women.

“It’s something you hear about but you don’t think it’s going to happen in a place like this,” said Alan Peckham, who has lived in the apartment complex for about two years.

The shooter, identified by police Friday as Joseph Giachello, was distressed because he had been caught violating a ban on smoking in the 151-unit building, tenants said. 2n Thursday morning, Giachello went into a first floor administrative office at 10:30 and shot Robin Moss, a manager of the facility. He then shot and killed Julie Cardinal, an office manager, as she tried to run away. Donna Thornley, a resident of the complex, was also shot.

Giachello returned to his third floor apartment and was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot in the early afternoon.

Moss, of Cranston, remained in critical condition at ale 1ew Haven Hospital early Friday night. Thornley was in stable condition at Rhode Island Hospital as of Friday morning.

Westerly Police Chief Shawn Lacey said Friday that the department had had several encounters with Giachello over the years. Police records show that officers responded to a report of Giachello making suicidal threats while in possession of a firearm in 2003, Lacey said. His weapon was seized and he was taken for evaluation.

A similar incident occurred in 2002, when Giachello left a weapon at South Shore Mental Health in Charlestown before police spoke with him, Lacey said. The Providence Journal, quoting a Family Court record, reported that Giachello was certified at the time as

“homicidal and suicidal” after threatening to kill his wife and himself. She received a court order of protection and was granted a divorce in September 2003, the newspaper reported.

In early 2018, officers were asked to perform a well-being check on Giachello. The police found him at his residence in Babcock Village and he said he was not in need of services, Lacey said.

Lacey said Giachello recently purchased, legally, the handgun that he used on Thursday. The investigation has also revealed that he had been informed that he had violated a Babcock Village policy prohibiting smoking in the building. While police do not believe Giachello was subject to an eviction proceeding, Lacey said, it was possible that Giachello thought he was being evicted.

Antoinette Aprea, a 13-year resident of the apartment building, said she had been in the office on Thursday morning and spoke with Cardinal she was meeting her for the first time. Moss was taking care of some paperwork. Aprea said it was Moss’ last day on the job.

“They were both very bubbly and happy,” Aprea said.

About 0 minutes later, Aprea said, she heard a man yelling loudly in the hallway. She opened the door of her ground-floor apartment to check and was told by a police officer to close her door and lock it. 2n Friday she expressed shock. “Here you are with them and an hour and a half later they are shot,” Aprea said.

Aprea and Peckham both praised the work of the Westerly Police Department after the shooting. Asked whether she felt safe on Friday, Aprea responded, “I don’t know if there’s any such word, safe, the way things are today in the world.”

Aprea described Giachello as being quiet and “very to himself, he never mingled with people.” She said he was deeply saddened by the recent death of his pet cat. “He was crying, actually,” she said. “He seemed to be a very kind of depressed person. I’m sure, because evidently something was going on.”

2nce, Aprea said, Giachello approached her while they were in a common area in the apartment building. He was carrying an ornate jewelry box and asked her if she knew anyone who would want it. Eventually, Aprea said, she decided to accept the box herself.

.athleen Dauber, a resident of the complex, said she had frequently spoken with Giachello and had no reason to think he was capable of the violence he perpetrated Thursday.

Mark Celico, a resident who lived three doors down from Giachello, said he occasionally chatted with him. “ ou would never have known he was holding all that inside,” Celico said.

Counselors from the American Red Cross and the Lifespan Health System were on the Babcock Village property Friday offering their services to residents of the facility, tenants said.

Michael Masseur, spokesman for Property Advisory Group & Affordable Housing Strategies Inc., the Providence-based company that owns Babcock Village, said tenants were expected to abide by all applicable gun laws but there were no provisions in leases pertaining to firearms. Masseur said the company could not comment on whether Giachello was facing eviction.

Masseur said the company has been in communication with the victims’ families. “We have reached out to the families of all the victims, and will maintain an open line of communication with them. 2ut of respect for the families, the substance of those conversations will remain private,” he said.

Property Advisory Group & Affordable Housing Strategies Inc. owns several apartment complexes across Rhode Island and in other states.

2ne tenant whose apartment is near Giachello’s declined to give her name. “It’s a senseless act that you’ll never make sense of,” she said.