Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The owners of the Sportsman's Inn should be penalized, the police say, for the violent outburst three weeks ago in which three people were shot inside the foyer of the downtown strip club.

The police have been joined, unbidden, in their complaint by neighbors of the inn who contend that the establishment is a longstanding nuisance.

At the request of the police, the city Board of Licenses Monday began what the board calls "a show-cause hearing" to determine whether the board should take action against any or all of the inn's eight licenses.

Police Detective Michael Otrando was the only witness who testified Monday at the hearing in City Hall, and he said that the inn had no security personnel on duty at the time of the shooting and a preceding altercation on March 24. A surveillance camera was not working, he added.

The incident was instigated shortly before 1 a.m., according to Otrando, when Jonathan Quaweay, 22, of Auburn Street, Cranston, tried to go upstairs to a room for rent at the inn with his girlfriend, Melissa "Bella" Rathier, 22, an exotic dancer at the strip club downstairs. He had an open bottle of beer in his hand that he had gotten at the bar.

Manager Steve Rogers, 50, challenged Quaweay, reminding him that bottles could not be removed from the bar area, and Quaweay poured some of the beer down onto Rogers' face from the second-floor stairway landing, according to the police investigation.

Then Quaweay returned downstairs and Rogers told the police that he backed away, afraid that Quaweay might strike him with the bottle. At that point, three men who were identified as bar patrons and friends of Rogers pounced on Quaweay, beat him and left him with cuts to his lips and head.

Quaweay quickly left, according to Otrando's account, but he returned about 15 minutes later with a handgun and shot three people: bartender Donna A. DiFalco, 37, of 125 Norton Ave., Cranston; patron Joel P. Sennon, 30, of 24 Royal St.; and dancer Jasmin M. Rosario, 21, of 134 Bellevue Ave.

A bullet also struck the boot of front desk clerk Walter G. Crawley, but he has said that he was not injured.

DiFalco, who was shot in the head and was the most seriously wounded, remains in stable condition, according to Assistant City Solicitor Max Foster. Sennon, who Otrando said had joined in the beating, was wounded in four places but was able to leave the hospital later the same day. Rosario was only grazed by a bullet. Detectives recovered eight shell casings and three bullets, according to a police report.

The police obtained an arrest warrant for Quaweay, who has a substantial criminal record, that charges him with four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and carrying a firearm without a license. He has not yet been apprehended.

 Tags  Providence RI

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