A man who just turned 18 stands accused of fatally stabbing a U.S. Army veteran of the Afghanistan war outside of a Providence, Rhode Island, Walgreens.
Suspect Erico Montalvo has allegedly admitted to cops that he stabbed infantry vet Colby Mendonca, 26, and a friend in the pharmacy parking lot behind the store about 2 a.m.
EMTs rushed the soldier to a local hospital, where he died.
The tragic Mendonca stabbing that occurred a week ago Saturday was Providence’s ninth homicide so far this year. Mendonca’s friend survived his knife wounds.
The GI who deployed to Afghanistan for a two-year tour was buried with full military honors on Friday. He leaves behind a 3-year-old daughter.
Said Mendonca’s cousin about the incident, “The guy gets out, starts stabbing his [Mendonca’s] best friend, so my cousin, like the hero he is, he gets out, pulls the guy off him, didn’t know he had a knife on him, and he proceeded to stab my cousin.” A friend of the soldier declared that “This man went over there, gave up two years of his life. Didn’t get to see his daughter crawl. Didn’t get to enjoy that moment. He comes back here and dies on our home soil. Our home soil. He didn’t deserve this. Nobody does.”
According to WPRI, Channel 12 in Providence, a disputed liquor purchase led to the fight at Walgreens.
“Court documents obtained by Eyewitness News allege that Mendonca and friends went to buy alcohol from a bootlegger in the store’s parking lot, when their truck was struck by Montalvo’s car. Montalvo tried to leave the scene after the two parties could not come to terms, but the group caught up in the truck and stopped him behind the store. A fight broke out, which the affidavit says ended with Mendonca and a second man getting knifed.”
In a court appearance on Friday that apparently occurred around the same time as the soldier’s funeral mass, “Special Assistant Attorney General Meg McDonough told Magistrate Joseph Ippolito that Montalvo admitted to Providence investigators that he’d been at the scene and had stabbed both men,” the Providence Journal reported .
The teen suspect in the Providence stabbing death of the Afghan vet faces two felonies, murder and assault with a deadly weapon. He is currently being held by authorities without bail and is due back in court on July 28. He has yet to enter a formal plea on the charges.
[image via YouTube]
