Man Arraigned in Slay of R.I. Detective

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A man charged with killing a detective with the officer's own gun inside police headquarters was ordered held without bail Monday.

Esteban Carpio (search), 26, did not enter a plea in Providence court to a murder charge in the death of James Allen, who was questioning him Sunday about the stabbing of an elderly woman.

Police said Carpio, who was not handcuffed, got hold of Allen's gun and shot him twice, then broke a third-floor window and jumped out. He was captured after a struggle a few blocks away, police said.

In court Monday, Carpio's face was badly swollen and disfigured from bruises and his hands and legs were shackled. Sheriffs wrestled his mother and another woman out of the courtroom as they screamed about police brutality.

The murder charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole because it involves the alleged killing of an on-duty police officer, according to Providence (search) police. The case will now go to a grand jury.

Police Chief Dean Esserman (search) said Monday there was no indication that police used excessive force to subdue and arrest Carpio, who was being held in segregation with a 24-hour guard.

"He jumped out of a third-story window and he struggled in a fairly tough struggle on the ground" when Providence and state police and federal agents caught him, Esserman said. "When I saw him he was fairly cut up."

His family said Carpio had recently been experiencing mental problems. Esserman would not comment about whether police had been told on Saturday, the day before the shooting, that Carpio was mentally unstable.

"He needed help and we couldn't get it and we tried and tried," Dolores Irish, who identified herself as Carpio's aunt, said outside court Monday. "He didn't deserve this. He's a victim just as much as anybody else in this."

Esserman said the department would review Carpio's treatment if appropriate, and would consider a review by an outside agency.

Allen, 50, was married and had two daughters, and had been a police officer for 27 years. A funeral Mass was planned for Thursday.

Esserman said no charges have been filed in the stabbing of the 84-year-old woman, and that Carpio remains a suspect.