A Providence mother called police after she lifted her child's mattress and found a bullet on the bed, along with a hole punched through the bedroom wall. Officers who responded to the Barstow Street apartment in Olneyville arrested 34-year-old Sean Pagan, the family's next-door neighbor, in connection with the shots that reportedly tore into the home while the woman and her two children were inside.
According to GoLocal Prov, police were called to the apartment shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday for a report of shots fired. The outlet reports the mother had thought she heard gunshots coming from her children's bedroom the night before she dialed police, but when she checked the room at the time, she found nothing unusual.
It wasn't until she went back and lifted one of her children's mattresses that she discovered the bullet on the bed, along with a hole in the bedroom wall, per the same account. That bedroom sits adjacent to another apartment, and when officers went next door, they found Pagan inside.
Rifle Case and Holster Found Near the Bed
Officers reportedly found a safe near the bed in the adjacent unit, along with what appeared to be a rifle case tucked underneath it and a gun holster hanging nearby. The report also notes that the wall adjacent to the victim's apartment showed what appeared to be a bullet hole that had been covered over with filler. Pagan was transported to Central Station for charging, the station's report states.
The specific charges filed against Pagan, along with any information about his arraignment or custody status, had not been detailed in available reporting as of Sunday.
Not the Only Overnight Shooting on Providence's Books
The Barstow Street case isn't the only recent instance of gunfire striking an occupied Providence home. Officers responded to a residence on Ophelia Street around 2:50 a.m. on a Saturday after shots were fired there, according to WJAR / Turn to 10. In that case, the station reported that a home was damaged but its occupants were unhurt, with at least one round passing through the front door and lodging in an interior wall while officers also recovered shell casings and live ammunition in the road. WJAR noted that investigation remained ongoing at the time of its report.
The Barstow Street incident lands amid a broader decline in violent crime across Providence. The city recorded 293 violent-crime incidents in the first half of 2025, down from 345 during the same stretch in 2024 and 392 in 2023, according to WPRI. That half-year figure has fallen steadily since 2022, when it stood at 441, and WPRI also reported that Providence police had taken more than 150 illegal guns off the street so far in 2025.
Homicides have followed a similar downward path, with just one recorded from January through mid-July 2025 compared with 11 homicide deaths in all of 2024 and 14 in 2023, per WPRI's reporting. Still, incidents like the one on Barstow Street show that gunfire can still find its way into homes where families are sleeping, even as the city's broader numbers trend down.
