A rock fired from a slingshot in a passing car hit the window next to where a student was studying in Rockefeller Library Saturday night, making a small hole in the window but failing to penetrate the thick glass.
The student was unharmed, but the shot, which occurred shortly before 7 p.m., briefly created a scene when half a dozen police cars arrived and officers closed off George Street for 20 minutes between Prospect Street and Benefit Street in search of a bullet casing, treating the incident as a possible gunshot.
Between 6:45 and 6:50 p.m., the student was sitting on the library's lower level near carrel 67, facing George Street, when he was startled by the shot, he told The Herald. He added that he was a sophomore but declined to give his name.
"All of a sudden I heard this really loud impact," the student said, the result of which was a small hole, "kind of like a bullet hole."
Sergeant Robert Enos of the Department of Public Safety said the student had also reported seeing "an orange flash" at the time of the shot.
The student told The Herald he was so "shaken up" that he briefly "started reading again." But he left the library shortly afterward and returned to his room, where he told his roommates what happened. He then returned to the library with friends and decided that he should report the incident. DPS received a call at 9:10 p.m., Enos said, and arrived in front of the library within minutes.
The student said he was feeling much better once police had determined that the weapon fired was a powerful slingshot of some kind and not a gun. "It's an interesting way to spend a Saturday night," he said.
There were no other students nearby on the library's lower level at the time the shot was fired, said Jeffrey Sanford '10, who said he spoke to the student about the incident when he returned to the library. "He was the only one down there," Sanford said.
Other people studying in the library were not alerted of what had happened, and the library remained open, a Sterling Security guard on duty outside the library last night said, adding he was not comfortable speaking officially about the matter. A number of students who were outside and saw the police cars, however, had asked what had happened, he said. The library closed at its normal time at 10 p.m. last night.
Enos said police had determined that the weapon was probably a "rocket sling shot," and that the rock was found "in pieces" near where it had hit the window. While a gunshot would have penetrated the glass, Enos said, the hole created by the rock's impact could only have been made if the perpetrator used a weapon to hurl the rock, such as a slingshot.
"That's some pretty thick glass," Enos said. "In order for that to shatter someone would have had to (use a weapon)," he said. "I don't even think Roger Clemens could throw it that hard."
The hole, which was still visible around 10 p.m. Saturday night, was about "two inches, an inch" in diameter, Enos said.
Officers from the Providence Bureau of Criminal Identification were taking photos inside the library late Saturday night.
Reached by phone on Sunday, Enos said DPS, and not the Providence Police, would handle the investigation, and that there were no witnesses or suspects so far.
"Nobody saw anything," he said.
