PROVIDENCE — Four members of Laos Pride, a Smith Hill-based street gang, were arrested on weapons charges Monday night just minutes after they allegedly opened fire on a rival gang — the Hanover Boyz — in the city’s West End. No one was hit in the barrage of gunfire, but the police seized two guns from the car of the suspected shooters. In two other unrelated incidents on Monday night and early yesterday, police made two more arrests and grabbed loaded guns. Maj. Stephen M. Campbell, who oversees the Providence police detective division, said that removing guns from the street is a department priority and a proactive way to stem bloodshed. “We really want to keep the violence down and we’re keeping it down by going after guns,” he said. “We are out there and we are focused.” A timely tip from an informant led to the rapid arrest of the Laos Pride gangsters. Around 11 Monday night, Detective Peter Chabot, a state trooper assigned to the Providence Police Gang Unit, received a tip from a source that a house at 121 Bellevue Ave., in the West End, “had just been shot into.” The police received information that the shooters fled in a white Toyota Camry. The gang unit officers knew of a Laos Pride gang member who drives a car fitting that description. At the Bellevue Avenue address, several Hanover Boyz were milling around the backyard, but they refused to talk to the police about the shooting. Investigators determined that a stray bullet had struck a Volvo parked nearby. A few minutes later, the police spotted the Toyota turning from Waverly Street onto Cranston Street. Inside were members of Laos Pride wearing blue bandanas that were partially masking their faces. The police activated lights and sirens and called for backup. The car ignored a warning to stop and continued for several blocks. Once the car stopped, the police, with guns drawn, surrounded the Toyota and ordered everyone out. The police found two guns under the seat: a semiautomatic Raven and a Colt revolver. The police said both were loaded. Two of the passengers, ages 17 and 16, were each charged with possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a firearm by a minor, possession of a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, discharge of a firearm in a compact area and possession of ammunition by a minor. A Family Court judge ordered them held at the Rhode Island Training School. Two other gang members, Steven Soundara, 19, of Providence, and a 17-year old, were charged with failing to have a license or permit required for carrying a pistol. In September 2006, Soundara’s older brother, Bobby, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for throwing a pipe bomb into the home of a member of the Young Bloods, a rival gang. The bomb did not injure the intended target, but it went off in the face of a gang member’s mother and she lost an eye. Soundara was also a member of Laos Pride. Detective Sgt. Michael P. Wheeler, who heads the Providence police gang unit, said the arrests and seizure of guns underscores the deep knowledge of gang activity that his officers have developed over the years. “It shows our ties to the community,” he said. “We are out there and we know who is out there. The fact that we took two guns from these kids is huge.” The other two arrests and seizure of guns took place in the city’s South Side. About 12:30 a.m. yesterday, officers assigned to the department’s Gun Task Force received a tip that a woman would be driving a car with a loaded gun to Chad Brown, a housing project off Douglas Avenue. The tipster said a white Chevrolet would be on Broad Street within 30 minutes. The officers spotted the suspected car and stopped the driver at Broad and Pearl streets after it allegedly passed a car on the right. The driver, Althea Latimer, 39, who was driving on a suspended license, was arrested and taken into custody. The police found a loaded .12-gauge shotgun in the trunk. She was charged with possession of a loaded weapon in a motor vehicle and operating on a suspended license. Earlier on Monday, at 10:25 p.m., the police arrested Joshua Carpenter, 22, of 224 Pearl St., after he allegedly threatened a woman with a handgun on Providence Street. The police searched his home and found a chrome revolver stashed in a Remy Martin canister. Carpenter was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a weapon without a permit and carrying a dangerous weapon when committing a crime of violence.
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