Suspect in Providence homicide found hiding in closet

The loved ones of the man he is accused of killing, 19-year-old Juan Carlos Morales, sat with their own grief just a few feet away. They all listened as a prosecutor told Judge Melissa Dubose that, after Giron was arrested, he confessed to committing the murder.

On June 10, the two men were among a group of friends hanging out at Donigian Memorial Park in Olneyville, a hub for the Central American families who live in the neighborhood.

Morales was an immigrant from Guatemala, whose friends called him “Skinny,” and who often played soccer in the park and hung out there with friends to drink and listen to music. Giron, a landscaper nicknamed “El Guero,” Spanish for “the warrior,” was also there that night. And the two men did not get along, according to police.

The men got into an argument under the awning of the concession stand when Morales walked behind the building, according to an affidavit supporting an arrest warrant. Giron, the police say, was carrying a gun and shot Morales in the chest.

The friends heard the gunshots and ran to find Morales dying on the ground and Giron fleeing toward the wooded area along the Woonasquatucket River.

The detectives quickly figured out who they were looking for, said Chief Oscar Perez. After speaking to witnesses, some of the detectives realized they knew Giron, because they’d arrested him in May 2022 and August 2022 on other gun charges, according to the affidavit.

The officers in the specialized intelligence and youth services detective units, members of the state police violent fugitive task force, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the US Marshals went out searching for Giron.

Giron stayed in Providence, moving from house to house. The police searched a relative’s home on Hudson Street, earlier this week, but Giron was gone. On Wednesday they got a tip that he was hiding at 280 Union Ave., and at 5 p.m. they had the home surrounded. When police negotiators couldn’t persuade Giron to come out, the special-response team went in to get him, Perez said.

Giron was “emotional” and didn’t try to resist when officers in the Providence police special-response team spotted his knee under piles of garments inside a bedroom closet and pulled him out, said Detective Captain Roger Aspinall.

At a news conference Thursday morning, the chief and Mayor Brett Smiley gave their condolences to Morales’ family, who live in Providence and Guatemala. They also praised the dogged work of the investigators in tracking down Giron.

“At the end of the day, families want to see results when they lose a loved one. They expect the Providence police to act,” Perez said. “I’ve seen plenty of people die in the city, and I’ll tell you, we all take it personally. We wear this patch with pride on a daily basis, and that’s what we did in the last 36 hours to make sure we cops have someone that committed a homicide.”

This was the third time that Providence police have arrested Giron on gun crimes in 13 months, and Perez admitted to some frustration. Giron had pleaded no contest to firing a gun in the city last year and has been out on bail since August for carrying a gun without a license.

“We are the face of criminal justice system. Our job is to pursue justice and present it to the court, and at the end of the day, it is their decision,” Perez said. “The work we do is hard, it’s very difficult, so when someone gets released, it’s frustrating. ... But if they continue to commit crimes, as you see in this particular case, they’re going back to face the criminal justice system.”

The police have not found the gun used to kill Morales, the chief said.

The mayor said he supported the work of the Providence police to take illegal guns off the streets, “but it is swimming upstream because the amount of illegal guns on our streets is just overwhelming.”

“Gun violence is a problem in our city, and it’s something that honestly keeps me up at night,” said Smiley. “There are way too many guns in this community, and things that might have been personal disputes resolved through fist fights in the past now result in gunfire and sometimes death.”

At the arraignment, Dubose ordered Giron held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions on the charge of murder, discharging a firearm while committing a violent crime, carrying a firearm without a license, and violating his bail on the gun charge from August. His lawyer Justin Lisi declined to comment.

This article has been updated with information from Giron’s arraignment.

Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMilkovits.