Three suspects in Providence hostage situation held without bail

Shocking new details emerged in Providence District Court Wednesday involving an armed home invasion that turned into a tense hostage situation on Norwich Avenue Tuesday morning.

Pedro Gomez, 28, Jose Rodriguez, 32, and Andre Savage, 23, were arrested after the eight-hour standoff where police said they busted into the home and took a family hostage. 

Hostage negotiators were able to coax the men into releasing a man, woman, and eight-year-old boy before they gave up without a fight

Because of how the whole thing went down, police do not believe this was the robbers’ first rodeo, and now they’re checking to see if they were involved in other home invasions around the city.

The three men faced a judge Wednesday with family members of the suspects showing their support in a packed courtroom.

While reading in the charges, prosecutors said that Gomez, Rodriguez, and Savage “burst into the apartment. They assaulted one of the victims by hitting them in the head with a metal object, [and] held them at gunpoint.”

Police were notified after a 22-year-old man escaped and jumped out the second story apartment window on Norwich Avenue and called the cops.

Gomez, Rodriguez, and Savage were all wearing masks, armed with pistols and at one point asked the hostages ‘where’s the drugs’, prosecutors said in court.

Maj. David Lapatin with Providence Police said that if it turns out that the three men were looking for drugs, they had the wrong house.

Maj. Lapatin said the investigation is far from over, as police are now seeing if the trio is responsible for other armed burglaries in and around the city.

“You know, you’re going to rush a house with weapons with an eight-year-old child there, some of the other [victims] had kids younger than that,” Lapatin said. “This was a big arrest for us.”

The three men are facing 14 felony charges, including burglary, weapons charges, conspiracy, assault, and kidnapping.

They were ordered to be held without bail.