'Providence Journal' Shooter Made Warning

By: Amy Forliti, Associated Press Writer (AP) The night before a Providence Journal employee fatally shot two co-workers and wounded a third, he told a friend he'd had enough of being harassed at work and warned that something was going to happen, the newspaper reported Monday.

"He said I'd hear about it on the news tomorrow," said Nelson Cabral, who met with Carlos Pacheco at a bar on Friday.

"They were just torturing him at his job," Cabral told the newspaper for Monday's editions. "But he wouldn't tell me why."

Police said Pacheco, 38, went on a shooting spree Saturday morning at The Providence Journal's production plant in suburban Warwick. Police later found what they believe was his body in a burned out vehicle.

Pacheco, a 20-year employee at the plant, had cried about his job and said three men at work were taunting him, said Patricia Bogacz, Pacheco's former sister-in-law.

Eric Reynolds, a colleague who had known Pacheco for 18 years, described him as a "good, quiet guy." He said there was a culture of good-natured ribbing among employees. "Somewhere along the line, he just flipped out," Reynolds said.

Cabral said Pacheco did not tell him of any plans to shoot colleagues. Pacheco said the harassment culminated with a recent car chase on Interstate 95, when Pacheco was pulled over by a state police detective, Cabral told the newspaper.

Cabral said Pacheco told him the detective was "the only person who knows the truth."

Pacheco made three attempts to reach that detective after the shootings, according to transcripts of 911 calls made within 17 minutes of each other.

"I just shot two people, hopefully killed," Pacheco said in his first call. "I'd like to speak to a state police detective. ... If it's not him, I'm going to be less than happy. Some more people might get hurt."

In the third call, Pacheco hung up while being transferred to state police, according to the transcripts. About five minutes later, his car was ablaze.

Pacheco was accused of killing his supervisor, Robert Benetti, 38, then leaving the building and shooting co-worker Charles Johnson in the face. The body of co-worker Matthew Fandetti, 29, was found shot to death in his home a few hours later.

Johnson, 30, of Providence was released Sunday from Rhode Island Hospital. He declined requests for interviews.

After the shootings, police pulled a charred body from a burning car. Family members said Pacheco died inside the car he bought a month earlier, but police said they couldn't identify the body until an autopsy was completed.

Pacheco's former sister-in-law said he was seen crying on Thursday and told his mother that three men at work were taunting him. Bogacz said he told another relative that he felt pressured to join the union.

The Teamsters organized five years ago at the Journal's production plant, one of three unions representing production employees and drivers. Frank A. Manfredi, president of Teamsters Local 64, denied that anyone had pressured Pacheco.

Local 64 official Richard Bergeron said that while Pacheco was not a union member, he was required to pay 92% of union dues. More than 90% of eligible Teamsters were in the Journal's union, which signed a five-year contract in January, he said.

"The suspect was a model employee," Bergeron said. "He never had a warning. The stewards have never said he had a complaint, a grievance, an issue."

Officials couldn't say whether Benetti, Fandetti, and Johnson all belonged to the union.