CRANSTON, R.I. (WHDH) - Police officers were called in to keep an eye on a convicted child rapist’s controversial wedding ceremony in Rhode Island on Saturday.
Neighbors protested Richard Gardner’s wedding, saying they didn’t know this was going to happen.
“This person wants to get married? Go down the hall, go somewhere else in another area,” Andrew Dumis said. “Don’t have this whole neighborhood in an uproar because someone’s getting married.”
Some parents in the Cranston neighborhood made moves to protect their children after finding out that 51-year-old Gardner, who spent 30 years in prison for kidnapping and raping children, was getting married in a backyard on the street they live on.
“I had my wife actually take my daughter over to her aunt’s house just to spend the day until everything calmed down,” a neighbor said. “The first thing I thought was ‘I don’t want this in my neighborhood,’ and, you know, here it is the next day.”
After being released from prison, Gardner moved to the Washington Park area of Providence, where he registered as a sex offender.
“I’m just kind of concerned for my kids’ safety and for other kids,” Dumis said. “As an educator and a teacher, I’m concerned for all kids’ safety.”
Gardner’s release from prison has also caused outrage where he lives in Providence. People gathered outside his home on Wednesday night screaming, “We want him out.”
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