EXCLUSIVE: Providence Murder Suspect in Video Glorifying Violence After Shooting & Before Arrest

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

GoLocalProv News Team

 

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Felix Rosado

On July 9, Providence police issued a warrant for the arrest of Felix Rosado in the murder of Jorge Gonzalez Colon. It was the city’s third homicide of the year. 

Friends described Colon, a contractor who was struck when “quite a few bullets were fired from up the street” on Progress Avenue on the night of July 1, as hard-working and a good person. He later died at Rhode Island Hospital. 

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Police said there was “no clear connection between the suspect and victim.”

Following the murder, and before he turned himself in, Rosado and friends were in a music video in Spanish released on July 14 to YouTube. The opening segment features Rosado’s mug shot — and TV coverage of the warrant for his arrest. 

Brandishing weapons, the highly-produced video shot in what appears to be a basement includes the following translated lyrics.

“We’ll come to your block and blow you up.”

“If you come for one of us, we’ll retaliate.”

“I’m always armed.”

“I have a 9…it’s a new one.”

“Be home real soon,” Rosado says at the end in English. 

“F—k the ops,” a girl can be heard saying in the background at the end.

Police Funding Under Fire 

On July 10, the Providence Fraternal Order of Police issued a strong statement about efforts by Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s administration and members of the Providence City Council to implement cuts to the funding for the Providence Police Department.

Elorza recently increased his own security after a small protest outside of his home.

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In the statement, the union said, “We will do our job regardless of what the City Council and Mayor do...we work for the law-abiding citizens of Providence, not the politicians.”

“These politicians may want to defund the Police, yet they are the first ones to constantly call for police intervention and protection for their special attention issues and their constituents,” said the FOP. “They are also grossly uneducated as to the many community-related services that our Police Department provides in addition to basic police work, and they refuse to make an effort to learn more about these services or experience them firsthand through a ride-along or meetings with our Police Officers. That is hypocrisy at its worst."

This weekend, Democratic Providence City Councilor John Igliozzi reported that his home was graffitied and his cars' tires were spiked. He says that action is over the issue of "defund the police" now pending before the City Council.

“This weekend my family and I were the targets of acts of intimidation and violence demanding that I defund and abolish the Providence Police Department,” said Igliozzi, who serves as the Majority Whip and Chairman of the Committee on Finance in a statement. 

At the state level, groups are also pushing for the defunding of police.

"Budgets are moral documents, and we're calling on all Rhode Island lawmakers to pass a budget that works for us all, not just the wealthy and well-connected," said Rhode Island Working Families Party State Director Georgia Hollister Isman this week, in an effort by multiple groups calling for a “justice budget” at the state level. 

"We can have a budget that cuts unnecessary funds from police and prisons, that makes the richest Rhode Islanders pay their fair share, and that invests in a just recovery for all Rhode Islanders,” said Isman. 

 

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