A Providence patrolman, Cornell Young, Jr., 29, he was off duty at all-night diner in Providence, waiting for a sandwich, and a fight broke out, spilled into the parking lot. He apparently watched this. At some point, a gun was drawn. The manager of the restaurant called 911.
At some point, Patrolman Young, who was in plain clothes, pulled his service weapon and moved to the door, announced in the diner that he was with the police and moved out through the door.
Meanwhile, the two Providence police officers were responding to the 911 call and arrived at the scene, saw a man, not Officer Young, but the initial man waving the gun in the parking lot, ordered him to put the gun down, and with their -- within a matter of seconds here, apparently, thought that Officer Young was a suspect involved in the altercation, and shot him -- the two responding police officers fired six shot, three of them struck Officer Young. And he was -- he died shortly thereafter.
Officer Young is a black man -- was a black man, the son of the highest-ranking black officer in the Providence Police Department, Major Cornell Young. And the two officers who responded to the call that night are white.