Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Higgins said he didn't know what Catalano was doing in the area or why he pulled into the gasoline station.

The Ford Explorer backed up quickly and fled to the south, toward North Kingstown, according to East Greenwich police.

Meanwhile, East Greenwich Fire rescue personnel responded within minutes to attend to LeValley, who was alert and talking to those rescue workers, according to Higgins. He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where the East Greenwich police say he died around 4 p.m.

The Shell employee's son, Cliff LeValley, said on Monday that the family is requesting privacy.

"We have confidence the justice system will be served," he said.

Within minutes of the hit-and-run, as Catalano fled the town, East Greenwich police notified North Kingstown police by phone that the hit-and-run involved injuries, and requested that Catalano be held so that an East Greenwich officer could pick him up. A motorist had called the police and said he was following the Ford Explorer, Higgins said. That motorist gave the police a license plate number and said the Explorer was heading south on Post Road.

North Kingstown Officer Maiato was dispatched to Catalano's residence on Wasp Road.

North Kingstown Police Chief Edward A. Charboneau

It was with little information about the suspect he was approaching -- or the East Greenwich hit-and-run -- that Maiato, 31, knocked on Catalano's door to tell him the East Greenwich police were looking for him, North Kingstown Police Chief Edward A. Charboneau said Monday.

"We didn't know [the hit-and-run] was going to be a fatal," Charboneau said. "We didn't have knowledge of the person's condition."

Nor, Charboneau said, did the North Kingstown police look up the criminal history of the man suspected in the hit-and-run accident.

"It was a simple notification," Charboneau said in an early phone interview with The Journal. "That's not something you look up somebody's history [for], just to see if someone's home in reference to a hit-and-run accident."

In East Greenwich, Police Captain Higgins said Monday morning that this was a fast-breaking incident. Once Catalano crossed into North Kingstown, Higgins said, his department turned to the neighboring department for assistance, even before checks could be done on the suspect.

Higgins said license plate checks and criminal background checks on suspects take some time, but the whole incident unfolded within about 20 minutes.

A police check on Catalano would have shown he had previous run-ins with the police dating back to his teen years in Johnston, including a 2004 charge of assault on a Johnston police officer after he allegedly poked an officer in the face while cursing him.

But officers make notifications like the one Maiato made Sunday "all the time for different police departments," Charboneau said.

Charboneau said early on Monday that the North Kingstown police would investigate whether the East Greenwich police told North Kingstown that the hit-and-run accident had critically injured someone.

Later on Monday, Higgins said that "North Kingstown was advised there were personal injuries in the accident." That information was relayed in at least a second communication between departments, but Higgins said it had been relayed by the time the officer showed up at Catalano's residence.

Charboneau said Sunday that Maiato had what he thought was a perfunctory conversation with Catalano, telling the man the East Greenwich police were looking for him in connection with an East Greenwich accident.

Fresh details emerged Monday about the shooting.

According to information presented in court on Monday, Maiato was standing outside Catalano's home Sunday afternoon when a radio call came over that the hit-and-run accident had seriously injured someone, and that East Greenwich police were on their way to Catalano's residence.

As soon as the radio call was heard, Catalano attacked the police officer, according to the prosecutor who spoke in court.

Catalano grabbed Maiato's gun and shot him three times, once while the officer was on his knees, and twice at his head, the prosecutor said.

He also pointed the gun at a witness who was screaming for Catalano to stop, Charboneau said later.

John Dennen, of 11 Wasp Rd., across the cul-de-sac from Catalano's residence, told a reporter Monday that Maiato knocked on Catalano's door and then the two of them walked to his SUV, which was parked on an island in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Catalano appeared to be pointing to damage on the SUV.

Dennen did not see the shooting.

Phillip E. Thomas, of Narragansett, holds his daughter, Kaida, 2, Monday, at the home of his ex-wife, who lives at 9 Wasp Rd. in North Kingstown. Thomas witnessed Sunday's shooting of North Kingstown Police Officer Travis Maiato. Providence Journal photos / Frieda Squires

However, Phillip Thomas Jr., at 9 Wasp Rd., said he heard a shot, looked out, and saw Maiato slink low and start to run. Catalano then shot at him twice more, Thomas said, as Maiato was in an adjacent yard, almost in the street.

Thomas said Catalano ran around the SUV, apparently deciding what to do, then bolted across the street to the police cruiser, jumped into it and took off.

Kathi Robbin, of 20 Yorktown Rd., around the corner, said Maiato ran 150 yards and crouched down behind a car, screaming, "Twenty-nine! Twenty-nine!" into the microphone on his shoulder. He had ducked down behind her neighbor's car when he saw his police car, driven by a young man in a white shirt, pass him and turn north onto Post Road.

Hearing that shots were fired, East Greenwich police officers rushed to the scene, according to the statement issued Monday by their department.

The East Greenwich officers saw North Kingstown officers chasing Catalano in one of their own cruisers. The East Greenwich officers were able to box him in at Post and Essex roads in North Kingstown, forcing him off the road, Higgins said Monday morning. Those officers broke the driver's side window and pulled Catalano out of North Kingstown police cruiser No. 343, according to the police statement. He suffered some minor cuts and scrapes as a result, Higgins said.

Catalano was held Sunday night at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, Charboneau said.

Reviewing the shooting incident Monday morning, Charboneau said Maiato was struck twice with bullets from his own .40-caliber handgun, one grazing him in the shoulder, and the other striking him in the back.

The bulletproof vest he wore as part of "standard procedure" in the department "definitely" helped save his life, Charboneau said.

"[The vest] deflected the bullet [to his back] and saved him from being more seriously injured," Charboneau said.

The North Kingstown police chief attended Catalano's Monday arraignment and afterward said Maiato is in very good condition. Charboneau said the officer, who has been with the department for 7 ½ years, may be released Monday from Rhode Island Hospital.

"Officer Maiato is very lucky he is alive," he said. "He told us he heard one [bullet] whistling by his ear."

-- With reports from Journal Staff Writers Amanda Milkovits, Tom Mooney, Thomas J. Morgan and C. Eugene Emery Jr.

This story was originally filed at 7:18 a.m. and updated at 8:16 a.m., 8:36 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 11:25 a.m. and 12:58 p.m.