WPD Seeks Landlord for Assaulting, Threatening Tenants

UPDATE: Warwick Police Officer Thomas Paine arrested Frank Marr, 63, of 115 Lockhaven Road on Thursday, May 7, at 4:33 p.m., charging him with simple assault and disorderly conduct.

WARWICK, RI — Warwick Police are looking for a Warwick landlord after video of the landlord assaulting tenants, Lawrence and Cassandra Adekeye, in their Suburban Parkway apartment May 6.

“You guys think you got it bad my landlord came to my house 3 days ago attacked me and cut me with glass over me being a month late for rent waiting for unemployment if it was the other way around I would be in jail,” Lawrence wrote on Facebook May 9.

Lawrence and Casandra moved into the Warwick apartment earlier this year, but are a month behind on the rent because their unemployment insurance checks have been delayed.

The couple, who each worked in the warehouse for RJ Carbone Floral Distributors in Cranston,  have been out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the video, Lawrence comments that his landlord, Frank Marr, has cut him during a scuffle inside their apartment. Cassandra comments that Marr spit at them during the encounter. Throughout the video, Marr can be heard telling the married couple to get out of the apartment, and to “get out of my house.

RI courts have observed a moratorium on residential evictions through May 17.

“He came into the house baring a 12 inch cooking knife and a piece of wood. I heard him in the kitchen breaking everything in his path. When I finally open my door he attacked me, spit in my face and cut my hand with glass which he threw in my face, threatened to kill me, cut my throat,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence said the attack happened at about 5:47 p.m. He said their roommate, Roger, a friend of Marr’s let the landlord into the house. Marr addresses Roger by name throughout the video.

Lawrence said he usually gives his rent to one of three of Marr’s employees and that he has been updating them on his unemployment situation. He said they told him it would be OK, and that he can pay what he owes when his unemployment payments are straightened out.

He said Marr’s attack was a surprise, and that he usually doesn’t have any contact with him.

Lawrence said Warwick Police took his statement and photos of the scene, including the cut on his hand from Marr’s attack.

According to an ABC6 report, Warwick Police are searching for Marr with a warrant for his arrest for disorderly conduct and simple assault.

This latest incident is not Marr’s first involving assaults on tenants. In one 2015 incident a WPD officer arrested him for disorderly conduct after a shoving match with a tenant over an $8,000 water bill and for attempting to fight people on the street after. While searching Marr, an officer found Marr had $6,000 and three diamond rings in a sock tied around his genitalia.