Police: Cranston man wanted in stabbing arrested in New Bedford, plate cameras helped identify him

NEW BEDFORD A Cranston, R.I., man wanted in a stabbing last week was arrested Thursday in a New Bedford garage, and Cranston police said the department's Flock license plate cameras helped identify him as a suspect.

David Mendez, 55, of Cranston, was taken into custody without incident about 9:30 a.m. Nov. 12 inside a garage at a residence in New Bedford, the Cranston Police Department said in a statement Thursday that the Fall River Reporter published. Members of the Rhode Island State Police Violent Fugitive Task Force and the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section had been tracking his movements since the stabbing, and the U.S. Marshals Service helped with the investigation and the arrest, the department said. Investigators also found and seized the vehicle police tied to the stabbing at a separate address in New Bedford.

In court in New Bedford

Mendez was to be arraigned in New Bedford District Court as a fugitive from justice, and once he is returned to Rhode Island he will be charged with felony assault in the stabbing, Cranston police said. NBC 10 reported Thursday, citing officials, that he had been arraigned there on the fugitive charge, and that an arrest warrant for him was issued Friday, Nov. 6.

A fugitive from justice case is how a Massachusetts court handles a person wanted in another state. State law lets officers arrest someone, even without a warrant, who is charged in another state with a crime punishable by more than a year in prison, and requires that the person be brought before a court with all practicable speed. If the court finds the person held is the one charged, it commits that person to a jail or house of correction for up to 30 days so the person can be arrested on a governor's warrant and returned, unless bail is given. Mendez is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

How the camera search worked

Cranston detectives started with a witness's description of the vehicle used in the stabbing, the department said. They ran a targeted search of the department's own Flock automated license plate reader system using that description and a partial license plate, and the search turned up a matching vehicle in the immediate area of the stabbing.

Investigators then learned the vehicle was registered to a Cranston resident and that Mendez had been stopped by Cranston officers before while driving it, police said. Mendez also matched the physical description the witness gave, and those findings quickly gave detectives a suspect and let them focus on finding him, according to the statement.

"Within minutes of this violent attack, our detectives were able to utilize a witness's description of the suspect vehicle and our Flock ALPR system to identify a vehicle of interest and develop a viable suspect," Col. Michael Winquist, Cranston's police chief, said in the statement. "That initial investigative work set in motion a coordinated effort that ultimately resulted in this arrest."

The department said technology played a significant role in identifying Mendez as a suspect, and that the investigation that followed and coordinated efforts among local, state and federal agencies led to his arrest in Massachusetts. Winquist thanked the two fugitive units and the Marshals for locating and arresting him.

The stabbing

The stabbing happened Friday, Nov. 6, in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Park Avenue in Cranston, police said. Officers found a 46-year-old man seated in a black Maserati with multiple stab wounds to his arm and chest, and they gave him medical aid until Cranston firefighters took him to Rhode Island Hospital, where he had surgery, the department said last week in a release Patch quoted.

Winquist said the first officers to arrive used their tactical medical training and equipment to control the man's bleeding. The man, who has not been publicly identified, remains hospitalized, and his condition has been upgraded from critical to stable, police said Thursday.

Mendez and the man had a prior relationship, the department said, and detectives are still investigating the nature of that relationship and what led to the stabbing. Winquist also thanked the witness who came forward, whom police did not name.

Plate camera votes on the South Coast

In New Bedford, Mayor Jon Mitchell wrote in a Nov. 4 letter that the Police Department chose not to renew its Flock contract, which runs out Thursday, Nov. 12. The City Council takes up his veto of its ban on the cameras at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, at City Hall, as our preview of the meeting reports.

Fairhaven town meeting members vote at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, on Article 9, a citizens petition that would ban the Flock cameras police run at the entrances to town, as our Article 9 story details. Lakeville voters take up a plate reader ban of their own at town meeting Wednesday, Nov. 18, as we reported.

What happens next

Mendez faces the felony assault charge in Rhode Island once he is returned there, and Cranston detectives are still working to establish the full circumstances of the assault, police said. Cranston police ask anyone with information to call the department at 401-942-2211.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.