I wonder

I wonder how it feels to have strangers tell you to calm down, have them reach into your pick-up truck and drag you onto a backboard, slap an oxygen mask onto your face and wheel you into a rescue vehicle.

I wonder how it feels to be held down by those strangers, have large needles stuck into your arms, all the while knowing that you are going to die, but those strangers keep telling you to just breathe and stop fighting.

I wonder how it feels to have your clothes cut off in a room full of doctors, nurses, firefighters and emergency personnel, and try to answer questions before the sedation medication takes over and a tube is thrust down your throat.

I wonder how it feels to be working at the same hospital that your family member was brought to, and see the chaos that rules during a Level 1 trauma, and know that is your cousin fighting for life.

I wonder how it feels to put a gun to the back of a twenty-three year old kid’s head and pull the trigger, and then shoot him in the face, just to make sure.

I wonder.

Man shot in residential parking lot

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, July 19, 2008

By Gregory Smith

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Daniel Martinez, 22, was shot in the head and seriously wounded as he sat in his pickup truck late yesterday morning in a residential parking lot adjacent to a multifamily house at 14 Croyland Rd. in South Providence, the police said.

He was admitted to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition, according to Detective Lt. Robert Lepre, who said the police are not yet sure whether he was shot once or twice.

Martinez, who was shot as he sat behind the wheel of his gray Dodge pickup truck, told the first police officer at the scene, Patrolman Jose Deschamps, that his assailant was a short man with tattoos and possibly tight braids. Lepre said it is not clear whether Martinez knows the shooter.

“We believe the suspect possibly fled in a Honda … possibly gold or reddish, maroon,” Lepre said.

The victim now lives in the Valley neighborhood, but Lepre said that he used to live at 10 Croyland.

The scene of the shooting is off Potters Avenue, a block or two from Robert L. Bailey IV Elementary School on Gordon Avenue.

Lepre said detectives have not identified anyone who saw or heard the shooting, which was reported at 11:41 a.m., but that several people are being interviewed.

Detectives took Martinez’s truck back to police headquarters for closer examination.

The police are confronting a resurgence of gun violence after several years’ decline; they have confiscated at least 10 firearms in the past nine days. The latest was a rifle that they say was hidden near a fence behind the Hartford Park public housing project.

Lepre speculated that the rifle might have been what the police call “a stash gun” or “community gun” that criminals hide in a public place for quick retrieval when needed.

Four police officers were on foot patrol at Hartford Park late Wednesday night when they said that they spotted Anthony Reid, 21, of 187 Althea St., in the West End, looking around and then pointing to a spot near a fence. Reid, they said, is under a no-trespassing order from the Providence Housing Authority to stay out of Hartford Park.

Then they said they saw Kenneth Perez, 18, of 8 Whelan Rd., in Hartford Park, go to the spot where Reid pointed and picked up what appeared to be a rifle. The officers moved in, but Perez allegedly ran into woods near Merino Park and discarded the rifle.

The police recovered the rifle, a .22-caliber Marlin that had been reported stolen in Cumberland, and arrested Reid — but Perez escaped. Reid was charged with violation of the no-trespassing order and the police obtained an arrest warrant that names Perez and charges him with illegal possession of a firearm.

gsmith@projo.com