Pawtucket police release edited videos in shooting of mentally disabled man with a toy gun, raising more questions

Boston Globe

10 hours ago

It's also the only video the city released that shows the shooting. The footage from Letourneau's body-worn camera was edited to show only 4 minutes and 2 seconds
after the shooting occurred.
That
clip begins with Letourneau handcuffing James Dean, a resident who was tackled by police as he yelled at officers not to shoot
Yidana. It is labeled 'redacted' and does not show the shooting itself.
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Footage from the body-worn camera of Pawtucket Police Officer Thomas Letourneau on June 8, 2025, shows his actions after he shot Sebastian Yidana.
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Letourneau can be heard trying to catch his breath and cursing. Another officer walks him to a cruiser and tells him to take a seat inside.
'F--k. My body camera's on, f--k,' Letourneau says and throws his sunglasses on the dashboard.
'Don't talk to anybody, all right?' a third officer tells him soon after. 'Take a breath.'
The other videos captured the chaotic aftermath, as swarms of officers responded in seconds to Letourneau's call about 'shots fired.'
Officer Matthew Levasseur jumped out of his cruiser with his gun drawn, shouting at Dean, a resident who was shouting at police as he stood with Yidana. 'Get out of the way so we can help him!' Levasseur shouted.
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Levasseur was the first officer to reach Yidana. He called for a rescue and yelled for gloves, and asked the fallen man's name. 'I might die,' Yidana answered softly, barely audible under James' screams. 'I hope I die.'
Video from the body camera worn by Pawtucket Officer Matthew Levasseur on June 8, 2025, shows the aftermath of the shooting of Sebastian Yidana.
'You're not gonna die, buddy,' Levasseur responded. He pulled on gloves and put pressure on Yidana's bleeding wound.
'Was it an officer who did this?' Levasseur asked, several times. 'Yes,' Yidana said.
Dean had his hands in the air, screaming, 'Toy gun!' as Officer Andrew Dutra drew his gun and shouted for him to get on the ground. Letourneau tackled Dean to the pavement, and as the officers handcuffed him, Dean kept asking, 'Why am I getting arrested?'
One officer picked up the camouflage-colored, orange-tipped, plastic toy gun that Yidana
dropped when he was shot. When Officer Nicholas Dadona saw it, he sounded confused. 'That's not the gun,' Dadona can be heard saying
on the video from
his body-worn camera. 'Where's the real gun?'
In body-camera video footage released by officials, a Pawtucket police officer holds the toy gun 28-year-old Sebastian Yidana, a mentally disabled man, was holding when he was shot by Pawtucket Police Officer Thomas Letourneau on June 8. (Pawtucket Police Department)
Pawtucket Police Department
Yidana had been playing with the toy gun as he stood at the corner of Goff Avenue and Broad Street, outside his apartment building at 10 Goff Ave.
'He's been doing that with the gun the last couple of days, out here, going up to people's cars,' a woman was overheard telling another officer
on one of the videos released by the police department.
Scott Fontes,
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The bullets also struck a parked vehicle and the front of the Blackstone Valley Community Action Program building on Goff Avenue.
Scott Fontes points to bullet holes in the Blackstone Valley Community Action Program building on June 27, 2025. Fontes said those bullets came from a Pawtucket police officer who shot at a mentally disabled man holding a toy gun on June 8, 2025.
Amanda Milkovits/Globe Staff
Yidana's family said the videos do not
explain why he was shot.
'Please, please release all of the videos right now,' implored Yidana's mother, Regina Socree. 'I don't understand why they are playing this game. Release them so we can see what actually happened. This is a human being we are talking about.'
Yidana was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia when he was in his late teens; his mother said the police are aware of his mental illness.
From his bed at Rhode Island Hospital,
Sebastian Yidana recovers at Rhode Island Hospital after being shot by Pawtucket Police Officer while carrying a toy gun. (Regina Socree)
Regina Socree
The city of Pawtucket has been slow to release any information about the police shooting over the last three and a half weeks. Aside from statements at the scene, Police Chief Tina Goncalves has not answered questions about the shooting. After
The city hasn't responded to a public-records request made two weeks ago for the police radio and dispatch calls from the shooting.
Although arrest reports are made public within 48 hours under state law, the department didn't respond to the Globe's request for Yidana's until June 25, after the Globe appealed to Grebien and the attorney general's office.
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The 18-page report showed someone had called about a man with an Airsoft gun with an orange tip — indicating that the gun was a toy. Two other officers reported that someone had called about a man with a BB gun.
The city still hasn't released a written narrative from Letourneau. City Solicitor Frank Milos told the Globe on June 26 that Letourneau had not yet written one.
Video from the body worn camera of Pawtucket Officer Andrew Dutra shows Officer Thomas Letourneau being walked to a police cruiser.
Letourneau was placed on administrative leave after the shooting. A video from the body worn camera of Pawtucket Officer Andrew Dutra shows him being walked to a police cruiser after the shooting.
A spokesman for the attorney general's office said prosecutors and the state police are continuing to investigate the shooting with Pawtucket police, as is protocol for officer-involved shootings in Rhode Island. Over the last 20 years, Pawtucket police officers have fatally shot seven people and wounded one other person. Each incident was deemed justified by a grand jury.
The attorney general's office told the Globe it had no objection to Pawtucket releasing the videos once all the witnesses were interviewed. Other police departments generally release the videos of police shootings that include the incident.
Pawtucket's release of edited videos 'was pointless, really,' said Choice McDonnough, Yidana's older sister. 'It doesn't answer what took place prior to the shooting. It just shows a bystander or witness defending Sebastian who is being arrested for no reason.'
Pawtucket State Representative Cherie Cruz (left) comforts Regina Socree on Friday as she spoke about her son Sebastian Yidana, who was shot and wounded by a Pawtucket officer on June 8. (Amanda Milkovits/Globe Staff)
Amanda Milkovits/Globe Staff
The Pawtucket police did not charge
Dean or Fontes, who were merely bystanders. However, the police lodged two felony charges against Yidana for allegedly carrying a device that resembled a firearm and pointing it at Letourneau on June 8 and another, unnamed person on June 7.
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Those charges cost Yidana his housing.
Pawtucket state representative Cherie Cruz criticized how the Pawtucket police have handled the shooting, saying that it undermined any trust from the community.
'Residents have to live in fear that they have no rights or protection from police violence. Who holds police accountable when they do commit crimes against residents, police themselves?' Cruz told the Globe. 'It will not happen when police police themselves.... a panel of cops will never hold other cops accountable for their lawlessness, crime, and violence.'
Amanda Milkovits can be reached at