Joined by his sister, Kara Sweeney Guerriero, Rafe Sweeney, 53, discusses living with mental illness and his ambition to help others when he finally is released from the hospital back into the community.

@gwaynemiller #Podcast for @projo - Story and video at providencejournal.com

Joined by his sister, Kara Sweeney Guerriero, Rafe Sweeney, 53, discusses living with mental illness and his ambition to help others when he finally is released from the hospital back into the community.
@gwaynemiller #Podcast for @projo - Story and video at <a href="https://www.providencejournal.com/">providencejournal.com</a>

A collection of interviews,  press conferences and news actualities from the Newsroom of the Providence Journal, Providence, Rhode Island.

News interviews and actualities from  The Providence Journal

From the Newsroom: The Providence Journal

The moon had set, leaving only stars above as Friday, June 26, 2015, began. Dawn was nearing when Mark Gonsalves, 44, left his apartment near the Newport end of the Pell Bridge and got into his car. Leaning on the gas, he sped onto the span.
 
He stopped at the apex, some 220 feet above the water.
 
It was 4:36 a.m.
 
To the south, Newport Harbor twinkled; north, Narragansett Bay stretched in darkness toward Providence. The air was about 66 degrees but there was no wind. Summer had arrived, a tad cool but nonetheless welcome in a year that had dawned with a historic blizzard.
 
Gonsalves stepped from his car and went to the north-side railing.
 
It is about 3 feet high, easy to scale.
 
Were he to jump, his body would rapidly accelerate, reaching about 81 miles per hour when he hit the surface in a journey lasting just over three seconds. He would cause a splash, but the sight and sound of it would be lost in the night.
 
Gonsalves jumped.
 
Finally free, he thought.

Redemption: The fall and rise of Mark Gonsalves

A collection of interviews,  press conferences and news actualities from the Newsroom of the Providence Journal.

Rafe Sweeney podcast

Activists want rent control in Providence this year. Will City Council move to pass it? The Providence Journal's Amy Russo reports on a recent rally in front of City Hall.

Activists want rent control in Providence this year. Will City Council move to pass it? The Providence Journal's Amy Russo reports on a recent rally in front of City Hall.

The Push for Rent Control in Providence

Drivers killed three pedestrians on North Main Street over the past year. Now, members of a new city task force are trying to figure out why the thoroughfare is so hazardous, and what can be done to make it safer. Journal staff writer Amy Russo reports.

Drivers killed three pedestrians on North Main Street over the past year. Now, members of a new city task force are trying to figure out why the thoroughfare is so hazardous, and what can be done to make it safer. Journal staff writer Amy Russo reports.

What's Causing Pedestrian Deaths on North Main Street?

His father, a farmer, lost 200 acres to the reservoir project in the 1960s, and when Breene wanted to buy his own dairy farm later, he ended up having to buy land outside the management area. “I’d rather be down on Big River.” 

“I always felt bad, because some people had some beautiful places and figured they had to get right out because the reservoir was supposed to be built in the early '70s. Some of the people who were older could have just stayed there, the way it all turned out, and finished out their lives where they were happy.” 

His father, a farmer, lost 200 acres to the reservoir project in the 1960s, and when Breene wanted to buy his own dairy farm later, he ended up having to buy land outside the management area. “I’d rather be down on Big River.” 
“I always felt bad, because some people had some beautiful places and figured they had to get right out because the reservoir was supposed to be built in the early '70s. Some of the people who were older could have just stayed there, the way it all turned out, and finished out their lives where they were happy.”

Rafe Sweeney podcast

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From the Newsroom: The Providence Journal

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