During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports,” Providence, RI Mayor Brett Smiley (D) said that he told people the city was safe even as the Brown shooter was on the loose because “kids needed to go to school, people needed to go to work. We needed to find the strength to start to take steps forward. And so, we tried to support them through those early steps with a tremendous show of law enforcement.” And with the person of interest who ended up not having any involvement in the shooting, “I allowed myself to think that maybe this was the person. I think the community allowed itself to think that maybe this was the person.”
Host Elizabeth Vargas asked, “[Y]ou’ve also had a lot of criticism from people in your community, particularly for going out shortly after the shooting and reassuring people in Providence that the city was safe, even while you had a mass shooter who was on the loose. Do you believe that’s fair criticism? How can you assure people the city’s safe, when, in fact, there’s a guy who shot 11 people who’s running around and hasn’t been caught?”
Smiley responded, “Yeah, that was the hardest question throughout this whole process. And it is a very difficult conversation for me to have with my neighbors, which is what this is really about. This is a tight-knit community. We all know each other, I think, because it’s come up a few times, I live in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred. And — but the fact of the matter is, is that this community is strong, it is resilient. And kids needed to go to school, people needed to go to work. We needed to find the strength to start to take steps forward. And so, we tried to support them through those early steps with a tremendous show of law enforcement. On every street corner, there was a police officer, and we got a lot of help from our neighbors here in Rhode Island, which we’re very grateful for. And the people of Providence really came together in a strong way. And so, I’m really proud of them and proud of this community.”
Later, Vargas asked, “[D]o you think, are you completely happy with the way this investigation was handled from the very beginning, even with its missteps, like detaining a person of interest who turned out to have nothing to do with the crime, assuring the public that everything was fine and you’re safe, you can go to school, you can go about your lives, even while a gunman’s on the loose?”
Smiley answered, “I am entirely satisfied with the police work that happened here in the last five days. And the misstep on Sunday was not that the person of interest turned out to not be the person. We had multiple, viable leads. And if we had gotten a credible lead and not run it down, that would have been a violation of our duty. What the misstep was is that — and I’ll speak for myself, I allowed myself to think that maybe this was the person. I think the community allowed itself to think that maybe this was the person. And so, it was a real disappointment when it turned out not to be. But we never put all of our eggs in one basket. The investigation continued down multiple pathways, and over the course of five days, there were several leads that turned out to be dead ends. One of them didn’t. And that’s how we got to resolution and were able to provide some closure for the victims and the survivors and, really, the whole city.”
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