Suspect apprehended after fatal shooting outside Rhode Island cigar lounge official calls 'public nuisance'

A man was taken into custody after a late-night fight turned deadly near a cigar lounge with a history of issues, police said.

Around 12:45 a.m. on Jan. 24, police believe Trequan Baker, 29, shot Qudus Kafo, and Bruno P. Vaz, 37, outside Fab City Cigar Lounge in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, following a fight, WPRI reported.

The victims were transported to Rhode Island Hospital, where Kafo was pronounced dead and Vaz treated for his gunshot wounds.

“He didn’t deserve to die like that,” Jamieson Mills, told WPRI of his “one in a billion” friend, Kafo. “I’m going miss him. We’re all going to miss him.”

Police in Cranston took Baker into custody on Jan. 26 after a vehicle he was driving allegedly was identified with license plate recognition cameras as matching the one the shooter used to flee the shooting.

According to WPRI, the Pawtucket Police have responded to the cigar lounge almost 200 times since 2019, including nine times this year.

Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien told the station in a statement that “reoccurring violence related to this business is deeply concerning.”

“Fab City Cigar Lounge is a public nuisance, putting a strain on the Pawtucket Police Department resources,” the mayor noted.

One area resident told WPRI of the establishment: “It has gone way past being a public nuisance, to where it’s a public hazard. This is a neighborhood, and this place is destroying it.”