PROVIDENCE, R.I.—A 25-year-old Providence man was ordered held without bail Tuesday after he was arraigned on charges that he opened fire and wounded three police detectives as they broke open an apartment door to search for drugs.
Christopher Hall did not enter a plea during his arraignment in Providence District Court on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, using a firearm while committing a crime of violence and several drug charges.
It was not immediately clear if Hall had an attorney. He was scheduled to appear in court Dec. 29 for a bail hearing.
More than a half-dozen officers went to a Hall's apartment Monday night to execute a search warrant for the drug raid, Police Chief Dean Esserman said. Three Providence officers wearing coats and jackets identifying them as police used a battering ram to break down the door when no one inside answered.
Two of the officers, Detectives Carlos Sical and Juan Robles, were shot as they crossed the threshold, Esserman said. One was struck in the leg and the other the arm, though police did not immediately say who had which injury. Deputy Police Chief Paul Kennedy said the third officer was John "Joe" Black, and he also sustained non-life threatening injuries.
Kennedy told WPRO-AM on Tuesday that all three officers have been released from the hospital.
"When something like this does occur, obviously it's very sobering to us," Kennedy said. "We literally do hundreds of these each year and we don't have instances like this, where officers are fired upon as they're entering these areas."
Aggie Swagg, a friend of Hall's, said the detectives failed to identify themselves as police officers when they burst into the apartment.
"He did not mean to shoot those cops," she said.
Police seized more than 100 grams of crack cocaine in the apartment, located in the city's West End.
