PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A man thrown out of a strip club after arguing with a club employee and fighting with other patrons returned early Tuesday morning with a gun and opened fire, wounding a bartender, a dancer and a customer, police said.
Detectives have issued a warrant for the arrest of the suspect who fled from the Sportsman’s Inn shortly after the shooting. His name has not been released.
The attack happened around 1 a.m. at the club and low-cost hotel in downtown Providence.
A club employee working the front desk told police that he saw the man walking upstairs with a woman and carrying a bottle of beer, according to a police report. The employee then felt a liquid spilling onto his head, thought someone had urinated on him and confronted the man.
The employee said he had been arguing with the man when four club patrons joined in and started beating the man, who ran out the door.
The man came back with a gun, according to the police report. He shot bartender Donna Difalco, 37, in the back of the head, police said. She was in serious condition at a hospital but was expected to survive, police Capt. James Desmarais said.
The man also shot patron Joel Sennon, 30, multiple times in the hands and thighs and fired a shot that grazed the leg of dancer Jasmin Rosario, 21.
Another gunshot struck the shoe of a front desk clerk, but he was not injured, police said.
David DeLuca, president of Sportsman’s Inn Inc., did not return a phone call seeking comment. Men gathered inside the club late Tuesday morning refused to take a message for the inn’s owner or comment on the attack.
(This version CORRECTS Sennon’s age to 30 sted 31; ADDS Difalco’s age, 37)
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