Providence police chief defends officer shown in video punching man during arrest
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — The Providence police chief is defending an officer seen on video punching a suspect Sunday night in the aftermath of the Dominican Festival in the city.
In the video posted on social media by trappalmundori, six Providence police officers surround Adonis Placencio, 27, when Sgt. Peter Salmons punches him at least four times in the stomach and then once in the head.
The police report states officers were trying to get people to leave the area, and claims Placencio was refusing, had an open alcohol bottle, was acting nervous about a bag strapped over his shoulder, and was looking to toss the bag.
In the report, officers claim they then felt the handle of a gun in the bag.
They claim Placencio struggled with them and that the officer punched him to get control of him because he was resisting arrest.
“It’s injustice,” Placencio’s girlfriend, Chrishelle Barbour, who was next to him in the video, told NBC 10 News on Tuesday.
“He’s going to give you the bag just like you asked for. He was giving it to them while they were still doing all that extra stuff. Why are you punching him when he’s literally giving it to you? It doesn’t make any sense,” Barbour said.
Police say they did find a gun, and a high-capacity magazine, in Placencio’s bag.
Col. Oscar Perez, the police chief, called a news conference Tuesday to say his officers did not do anything wrong.
Perez said the incident was already reviewed by his department and the punches were deemed appropriate.
“No one wants to use force, and I don’t think any Providence police officer comes to work thinking they’re going to use force, but unfortunately it’s part of the job, because it’s either for self-defense or to compel compliance. That’s what happened Sunday,” Perez said.
Barbour countered: “For none of them cops to get nothing happen to them. That’s crazy. That doesn’t make any sense.”
“The video talks for everything. Everybody saw the video,” Placencio’s mother, Antonia Placencio, told NBC 10 News.
Asked by NBC 10 News about the police claim her son had a gun in his bag, Antonia Placencio replied, “He wasn’t going to have it in his hand. It was in his bag. He was trying to take it off to give to them. But they do whatever they want because they’re the law.”
And she responded to the police claim he was resisting arrest by saying, “That’s what they claimed. But the video says something else.”
NBC 10 News asked Perez if he thought Placencio could have grabbed the gun from the bag as the officers surrounded him.
He replied, “Absolutely.”
Placencio was in court Tuesday, charged with multiple crimes related to the incident Sunday, and was ordered held without bail as a violator of his sentence on a previous gun conviction.
Perez said during his news conference, “If you think for one minute that you’re going to come to this city and engage in drinking and in reckless actions, and carrying a firearm, you better bet that the Providence Police Department will do their job.”
As the incident with Placencio was unfolding and in the aftermath, police arrested five other people.
Denzel Rodriguez was among the five. He was facing charges of simple assault and/or battery, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, according to court documents.
Rodriguez described his altercation with the officers to NBC 10.
“As I was leaving the scene he keeps pushing me. How am I resisting when I have 6,000 cops on top of me and I have my hands up saying that I’m going to leave,” Rodriguez said. “Nobody was causing trouble everyone was complying with leave it’s just that these new officers are over using their power.”
NBC 10’s John Perik contributed to this report.