Police: West Greenwich murder was a random act

By Ana Bottary

abottary@abc6.com

@anabottary

New information on how John O’Neil of West Greenwich was killed Saturday night. According to the state police, the 63 year old had no warning when 34-year-old Christian Lepore walked into his yard and killed him.

"The investigation thus far has shown no previous relationship between O’Neil and Lepore, it’s a random act of violence," says Rhode Island State Police Colonel Steven O’Donnell

West Greenwich police say O’Neil had lived in the town for more than 30 years.

"He was 63-years-old, carpenter. Just an all around good guy."

Lepore, Who has no prior criminal record, was working as a chef at the URI Alton Jones campus Saturday. Police say he asked to leave work early and may have been under the influence of something. According to witnesses, he took off through the woods ending up in O’Neil’s yard on John Potter Road a quarter of a mile away. O’Neil, who was working in his garage, saw him and immediately called police. While he was on the phone with them, he was attacked.

"it’s horrific to listen to. That is going to be part of our criminal prosecution that will allege what transpired. But as a career cop, it is pretty difficult to listen to something like that," says Colonel O’Donnell.

When police arrived, it took 4 officers with tasers and a k9 to finally take down the 6 foot 2, 350 pound Lepore.

"All had probable cause to believe a murder had taken place. All had probable cause to use lethal force. Chose to use non-lethal force even though the suspect was difficult at best to contain," adds Colonel O’Donnell.

(C)WLNE-TV 2016