The fate of Warren’s Italo-American Club remains in the balance after a hearing held at the Rhode Island Department of Administration headquarters in Providence Thursday morning ended without a decision.

In her duty to assess whether or not the Town of Warren rightfully revoked the club’s liquor license in the wake of the shooting that occurred on Sept. 2, 2021, Department of Business Regulation hearing officer Catherine Warren must first review the surveillance footage that captured the gruesome crime and receive the sealed results of Michael Ouellette’s toxicology report.

Representatives for the two sides will reconvene for a new hearing possibly within the next few weeks, although no definite date was set.

Ouellette was highly intoxicated, report showed
More details of the events leading up to the moments were disclosed through the witness testimony of Warren Police Lt. Christopher Perreault, who worked collaboratively with the Rhode Island State Police to investigate the incident.

Perreault described how the surveillance video showed Ouellette arrive at the bar to open in the morning and immediately get a beer. He testified that the footage showed Ouellette drinking a total of seven beers, including one in the immediate moments after he shot and killed Brian Remy and shot and injured club patron Jason Furtado (who was present at the hearing on Thursday walking with the aid of a cane).

Perreault described how Ouellette had been observed leaving the club and then returning about 25 minutes later, with one camera angle showing him taking a gun from beneath his coat and using it to shoot Remy in the back of the head, before turning the gun towards Furtado, who was able to escape despite being shot twice in the abdomen.

Perreault testified that Ouellette, after committing the act, asked bartender Patrick McKiernan, who had been hiding behind the bar, for a beer, and then left shortly afterwards — where he would subsequently engage Bristol Police Chief Kevin Lynch and Major Scott McNally on Water Street near his apartment and, ultimately, take his own life.

Although the full toxicology report on Ouellette will remain sealed, Perreault disclosed after being prompted by Warren Town Solicitor Tony DeSisto that his blood-alcohol concentration was .277 — over three times the legal limit to drive a vehicle, which is .08.

Additionally, Perreault answered questions regarding the search of Ouellette’s Water Street apartment and his truck. Items found included a loaded shotgun and ammunition, the pistol used in the murder, and empty beer cans throughout the home and vehicle. Perreault also confirmed that Ouellette’s toxicology report showed traces of a generic brand of Xanax, hydrocodone (a prescription opiate), and gabapentin (a seizure medication).

Defense aims to paint event as unpreventable
Defense attorney Kevin Bristow, representing the club, made purposeful strides to illustrate Ouellette’s actions as something that could not have been foreseen or prevented through any reasonable means, with the intent to show that the club did not act irresponsibly in any manner that led up to the murder and should summarily get to keep their liquor license — which is the primary means of income for the club.

Bristow asked Lt. Perreault if Ouellette had any past incidents of violent behavior, at the club or elsewhere. Lt. Perreault said he did not. Bristow asked if any of the club patrons interviewed by police had noticed Ouellette acting aggressively, threateningly, or in any kind of alarming state the day of the shooting. Lt. Perreault said they did not, and confirmed that some of the witnesses claimed Ouellette had seemingly “snapped.”

Bristow asked Lt. Perreault, a 25-year veteran of the Warren Police Department who stated he had observed anywhere from 300-400 people suspected of drunk driving, if anything in the surveillance footage indicated that Ouellette was dangerously intoxicated and should have been cut off by the bartender. Perreault answered that he did not observe any such behavior in the footage.

He later clarified, when asked by DeSisto, that visual cues from surveillance footage alone would not necessarily be enough to ascertain whether someone was overly intoxicated, however.