Opening statements in Dolan trial offer different explanations for teen shooting

WARWICK – At a prosecutor’s request, Dominic Vincent, now 20, took off his maroon dress shirt in Superior Court on Wednesday to show the jury the scar on his arm where a .40 caliber bullet, fired by an off-duty police officer, shattered his humerus one summer evening in 2021.

The result of Vincent’s encounter with Pawtucket patrolman Daniel Dolan appeared evident. But the jury could not have heard two more differing explanations of why it happened.

Dolan, 40, faces four felony charges of unjustly shooting Vincent as he and two friends pulled into a West Greenwich pizzeria to pick up their pre-ordered “meat lovers” pie before a night of watching playoff basketball.

In opening statements to the jury, Asst. Atty. General Daniel Guglielmo, chief of the office’s civil rights division, portrayed Dolan as a highway vigilante that evening of June 23, 2021, who created the dangerous situation leading to Vincent’s wounding.

Dolan was driving south on Route 95, heading home to Coventry. Guglielmo said Dolan saw Vincent’s black Audi speed past him at about 100 mph “and he couldn't let it go. Anger got hold of him.”

Being off-duty, “he had no more authority than you or me,” said Guglielmo. “He was a civilian. But he followed that car. And that’s why we’re here.”

Defense lawyer Michael Colucci told the jury that like any coin, there were two sides to this story. The other side, he said, is that Dolan “shot only in self-defense. And at that point when he made the decision to shoot, he was in grave danger” of being run over by Vincent.

Colucci said Dolan saw Vincent’s Audi scream past his Ford-350 pickup – state police analyzed highway video that showed the Audi going about 126 mph – and pass two vehicles in the breakdown lane.

Dolan had no intention of pursing the car, Colucci said, but when he took his normal exit, Exit 6, to head home, “lo and behold,” he saw the car in the distance down Nooseneck Hill Road. “He sped up to get the license plate number,” Colucci said, and perhaps “talk to him.”

“He couldn’t ignore it,” said Colucci, “and perhaps have read in the papers [the next day] that a black Audi killed someone. He's a sworn police officer, a [retired] United States Marine. He can’t. He feels obligated.”

The two lawyers disagreed again as to what happened in the parking lot of the Wicked Good Pizza restaurant.

Guglielmo said Dolan swung his white pickup into the parking lot, almost blocking in Vincent’s Audi, before jumping out to confront the driver.

The truck sat much higher than the car. On the stand, Vincent said he first saw the truck’s driver's-side door swing open fast. Sensing some danger from an agitated driver, he put the car into reverse and started to back out. Only then did he see Dolan approaching from around the front of the truck.

Video of the encounte shows Dolan walking quickly toward the car as it backs away, extending one hand that held a badge.

But Vincent said he didn’t know if this man, dressed in a cargo pants, a white t-shirt and a cap, was actually a police officer, whether the badge was real. He said he wanted to get back on the road and away from him.

During his opening statements, Colucci said Vincent and his friends are “not being truthful about that.”

He said Vincent attempted to leave the parking lot quickly because “they knew it had something to do with the highway” and how fast they had been traveling.

And Dolan was standing in their way: “Mr. Vincent was driving directly at him in an effort to run him down,” said Colucci. Vincent had “already driven into him, knocked him back a bit.”

“At that moment [Dolan] didn’t think he could get away,” asserted Colucci. “Faced with mortal danger, his training took over” and he shot Vincent.

Guglielmo disagreed with that version of events.

If Vincent’s car was an oncoming danger to Dolan, he said, the officer would have shot through the windshield. But Dolan was standing to the side of the car – and out of harm’s way – when he shot Vincent through the driver’s side window, Guglielmo said.

On the stand Vincent said, Dolan was in his peripheral vision when he heard the officer say: “you’re going to get shot.”

Then the window glass shattered and Vincent's ears were ringing from the shot.

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha has charged Dolan with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and a fourth count of discharging a gun while committing a crime. 

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Defense lawyer says Dolan shot teen in self defense after being hit by car