CRANSTON, R.I. (WJAR) — Editor’s note: Discretion advised. Some readers may find elements of this story upsetting.
Robert Macchioni said he was sitting in the kitchen paying his bills at the family’s Queen Street home in Cranston Tuesday morning when his son-in-law came running down the stairs holding his bleeding grandson, screaming he’d been shot.
He said his buddy, Ryder, was hanging there, lifeless.
“He comes running downstairs with the baby in his arms going, ‘He’s dead! He’s dead! He’s dead! And I saw the baby, the baby’s covered with blood,” Macchioni told NBC 10 News on Wednesday.
He said he had spare rags on the table and quickly handed some to 33-year-old Michael Jones, the child’s father.
“When he turned the baby towards me a little bit, his face was all red. I couldn’t see his skin. It was just covered with blood,” Macchioni said. “I said, ‘Clean his face off, get that blood off his face.’ And there was blood running down, so I said put something there too.”
Macchioni said Jones told him he was holding a loaded gun with the safety on, pointing it toward the closet.
“I said the safety don’t mean s— if the gun is loaded, if there’s a bullet in it,” he said.
Macchioni said Jones told him the gun went off, sending a single bullet through the closet and into the parlor.
Cranston police said that’s where the bullet hit the 4-year-old child in the head. Police said the child’s mother, father, grandfather, and 8-year-old brother, who wasn’t home at the time of the shooting, live in the house.
Macchioni said he quickly tried calling 911 but had trouble because he’d just gotten a new phone a week earlier.
“I used to have a flip phone, so I have this on here, and I’m having a hell of a time with it. So, somehow I call and I get them and I got hung up somehow, and so I called it again. Finally, I got somebody here,” he said.
Police said the child underwent emergency surgery and remained in critical condition at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Macchioni said the child had a piece of bone removed and is in a medically induced coma as doctors wait for his blood pressure to come down. He said the child is expected to have some motor skills problems but should remember who everyone is.
Macchioni said he and his grandson have a special bond. He said the child rushes downstairs every morning to greet him, adding the two have breakfast together while the child does some exercises.
“He’s always fixing stuff. He took some masking tape and a little round dish, and he made a hubcap for my scooter. He put the damn thing on,” he said.
Jones was arraigned Wednesday morning in Kent County Court. He was charged with felony assault with a handgun, felony assault on the body of a juvenile, and possession of a handgun after being convicted of a violent crime.
Cranston police said Jones was convicted of felony assault in June 2022 and was prohibited from having any guns. They said they’re investigating how he got his hands on the one that fired at his son.
Jones has a lengthy history and was on bail from a driving while intoxicated charge.
“If they ever let him go after all this, I’ll get a restraining order against him, and he won’t be able to come on the property. I don’t want him on the property,” said Macchioni. “He’s got so many DUIs, why they let him out every time I don’t understand.”
Source : WJAR
