Providence police say man was shot and killed while filming music video

PROVIDENCE — Police say a man was shot and killed Thursday night while filming a music video on Gallup Street in Lower South Providence. 

It is the 15th homicide of the year. 

Police said they received the report of a shooting on Gallup Street at about 11:30 p.m. Minutes later they received a call from Rhode Island Hospital reporting a shooting victim had been brought to the hospital, where he was dead on arrival. 

Police identified the man as Dante Mann, 27, of Providence. 

Police said Mann was part of a group of at least five people who were filming a video when a car, or cars, pulled up. At least one shooter got out and began firing at the group.

Mann was the only one who was hit by gunfire; it is not clear whether he was intentionally targeted, but police say the group was targeted.

"The shooter shot into a small crowd of people that were on Gallup Street at the time," said Capt. Tim O'Hara, commander of the detective bureau for the Providence Police Department. "We're concerned that this was a reckless act, where it looked as though he didn't care who he shot."

“He was the sweetest person,” Nicole Green, one of Mann's cousins, said during a press conference organized for the family outside of the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge in South Providence. “He was just trying to get his life together. He helped everybody. He was there for his whole family. He just had a baby. This is so unfair.” 

His mother, Kimmie Mann, described her son as a generous man who always helped others with whatever he could give. 

“If you went and you asked him for anything, if he got it, it’s yours,” she said. 

But along with the grief and sadness, Mann’s family members expressed frustration and anger about the fact that another young man from their community had been killed and the city at large didn’t seem to care. 

“Not one person from the Providence police force has called me since my son’s been murdered,” said Mann’s mother, who said she heard the news about her son’s death from a niece who called her after the shooting. She said she received a call Friday from Mayor Jorge Elorza’s office. 

Based on shell casings found at the scene, it appears that members of the group may have also fired back during the shooting, the police said.

The shooting may have been connected to an altercation earlier Thursday night in the same neighborhood, police said. 

Police do not have any suspects and are still looking to interview witnesses and obtain video. As of Friday morning, the police had not seen any video made by the group that Mann was a part of to see if it contained footage of the shooting, said O'Hara.

Kobi Dennis, a community advocate who organized the press conference at Prince Hall Masonic Lodge , said that in the case of Mann’s murder, as with the murders of many other young Black men, the media and commenters on social media are quick to judge and offer anything but a compassionate response. 

“We don’t get a chance,” Dennis said. “Even in death, this young man died, and he doesn’t get a chance.” 

Dennis said that he saw many posts on social media earlier on Friday during the Providence police department’s press conference from commenters who painted Mann as a criminal because he made rap music and seemed to blame him for his fate because he was out late at night filming a music video. 

“It’s just a horrible feeling that even during tragedy, they talk about our children like they’re dogs,” he said. 

One of Mann’s cousins, Tishana Mann, said her cousin has loved rapping since he was a kid. She remembers having sleepovers with him at her grandmother's house and hearing him make music. 

“He would be in the bedroom and he would just be rapping, making jokes, making fun of us and rapping,” she said with a small smile. 

“I just don’t want people to judge him,” she said. “Overall, he was an amazing person.” 

With more than two months left in 2020, the number of homicides this year in Providence has already exceeded the numbers in 2019 and 2018: 13 and 11, respectively.

Providence Police Maj. David Lapatin attributed the uptick in killings in part to more guns on the street. 

"I’m not saying it’s out of control, because it’s not. The city is still a very safe place,” he said. “As you see, most of these shootings are targets. They know who they want to get after. What we’re worried about is stray shots."