On a Sunday morning in March 2019, the life of 37-year-old Napoleon Andrade, a Black/African American male, came to a violent end in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Just after 9:30 a.m. on March 10th, Andrade was gunned down outside a halfway house on Quincy Avenue where he had been residing. He was nearing the end of a federal prison sentence, with his release scheduled for later that year.
The brazen daylight shooting in the Woodlawn neighborhood left the community shaken.
Andrade was no stranger to the criminal justice system, with a history of arrests for offenses ranging from drugs and firearms to assault. At the time of his death, he was completing a sentence that stemmed from various charges, including drug trafficking and a 2010 home invasion in Connecticut. The victim of that home invasion was an associate of the Gambino crime family, a detail that led investigators to consider organized crime connections as a possible motive for his murder. It was also reported that Andrade himself had ties to the New England-based Patriarca crime family, having once worked as a driver and bodyguard for a former boss. This complex web of associations led law enforcement to believe that Andrade's killing was a targeted hit rather than a random act of violence.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Pawtucket police launched an intensive investigation. They collected surveillance footage from the surrounding area, including a nearby church, which captured a car speeding away from the scene shortly after the gunshots rang out. Investigators explored the theory that Andrade's murder could have been in retaliation for the 2010 home invasion. The possibility of a mob-related execution sent ripples through the underworld, prompting federal authorities to relocate another mob figure who was also residing at the same halfway house as a precautionary measure.
Despite the strong leads and the clear indications of a planned assassination, the trail for Napoleon Andrade's killer or killers grew cold. While some online sources suggest that a suspect was eventually identified and arrested, more credible news reports and accounts following the incident indicate that no arrests were ever made in connection with his murder. The case officially remains unsolved, leaving a lingering sense of unease and unanswered questions within the community. Andrade's death serves as a stark reminder of a violent underworld that operates just beneath the surface, where old scores can be settled in the most brutal of ways.
