A statement released yesterday by Paquette said Farias told officers, who been called to the house for a domestic disturbance, to "come and get him" and that they "would have to shoot him."

Farias attempted to go inside, police used pepper spray and struck him in an attempt to subdue him. But he "continued to act completely unreasonable," the statement said, and a "violent struggle ensued" between Farias and several officers. Officers put him in handcuffs, but Farias continued kicking at officers while lying on the ground until he fell unconscious.

Paquette's statement said several police officers at the scene Wednesday received treatment from rescue workers for injuries they suffered in the struggle. No injuries were reported from the knife, described the sisters as a small, serrated steak knife.

Yesterday afternoon, a spokesman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said it “is troubling and does not inspire confidence” in the East Providence Police Department that the attorney general's office was not notified by police of the death until 8:30 a.m. yesterday. “You can’t reconstruct a scene 15 hours after the fact,” spokesman Michael J. Healey yesterday. “That’s the salient issue here.”

East Providence police were supposed to follow a protocol put in place by the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association in the wake of the accidental fatal shooting of an off-duty Providence police officer, Sgt. Cornel Young Jr., in January 2000.

Earlier this month, Pawtucket police shot and killed a man at his home after responding to a 911 call there of a 6' 5", 300-pound man wielding a "Samurai-style sword." It was the third fatal shooting involving that city's police in seven months.