PROVIDENCE – A 26-year-old man was fatally stabbed after leaving the Cadillac Lounge strip club here early Saturday.
Police identified the victim as Stephon Calice, of Fall River, Mass. He was a youth flag football coach and father of a 4-year-old girl; police say they are now trying to find out who might have wanted to harm him.
“We’ve been speaking with his family and his friends, who are obviously very devastated about the loss,” Maj. Timothy O’Hara said at a news conference at police headquarters Monday.
The Charles Street club is now closed. The Board of Licenses is set to meet later this week to determine what sort of discipline the club might face. O’Hara said he is not sure what the police department might recommend.
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According to O’Hara, police were called around 1 a.m. Saturday for a call about a disturbance at the club; around the same time, they learned that the victim, Calice, had been taken to a hospital in a private vehicle. Police learned Calice had died of a stab wound.
O’Hara said Calice was at the club with friends. After leaving, Calice’s group and another party got involved in a confrontation in the parking lot, O’Hara said. Only two people, Calice and the person who stabbed him, were involved in the actual physical confrontation, which was “very brief,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara said the police have no indication that any sort of argument began inside the club, but it’s under investigation. Police have not made any arrests.
“We’re hopeful to bring this to a resolution but right now we’re still out there digging for more information,” O’Hara said.
Dick Shappy, the owner of the Cadillac Lounge, said in an interview that the club has extensive security cameras, which captured the stabbing and the actions leading up to it.
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“We’re certainly cooperating with the Providence police in this investigation,” Shappy said.
Technically, Shappy said, the place where the stabbing occurred isn’t the property of the Cadillac Lounge, but of a vintage car business that he also owns. The club and the vintage car business do share a parking lot, Shappy said.
The club had security and a police detail inside the club that night, as they typically do, Shappy said. Security was tight, he said.
“Our hearts go out to the victim,” Shappy said. “It’s just a terrible incident.”
Shappy said he is hopeful that the club can return to normal business Tuesday after the three-day emergency closure required. Nothing to this degree has ever happened at the club in more than 30 years in business, Shappy said. In 2020, the president of the Rhode Island Hells Angels was charged in a disturbance there, and earlier this year the club was robbed of $22,000 before it opened.
This article has been updated with information from the club’s owner.
Brian Amaral can be reached at brian.amaral@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44.