Providence narrowly misses third murder

Pistol
Originally uploaded by pixelrandy.

Yes, yes: I promised to find something else to blog about, but that can wait until I take new photos this weekend. The Providence Journal (registration required) reports that the third murder of the year was missed by a very narrow margin, after a 69 year old man put a .32 caliber semiautomatic pistol to the head of his apartment complex's janitor and pulled the trigger.

The would be killer, Robert Blais, was apparently upset that the building's cleaning contractor, 36 year old Joseph Perry of Pawtucket, had been throwing away crackers left outside Blais' doorway in the hall. Blais had apparently been saving the crackers to feed squirrels and birds, but Perry had been throwing them away, saying that he was obliged to throw out garbage left in the hallways. Why Blais had been keeping discarded food in his hallway instead of his apartment was not made clear. At some point, Blais had confronted Perry and told him not to throw out his garbage. Perry said that his contractual obligations obliged him to get rid of garbage in the hallways. Blais apparently took this news extremely hard.

After failing to resolve the argument rationally, Blais confronted Perry, pointed the gun at his stomach, and pulled the trigger. That little click must have been the loudest sound Joseph Perry ever heard. After a brief struggle with Blais, Perry wisely fled to the parking lot and contacted the police on his cellphone.

The police arrived to haul Blais off, doubtlessly very grateful that they didn't have to cope with the third homicide of 2006.