PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A longtime high school basketball coach charged last week with sexually assaulting a teenage boy killed himself on Monday just hours after defending himself in an email to a newspaper.

Tyrone Dale, 45, hanged himself in Pawtucket and was pronounced dead at a hospital, Providence police said.

Dale had served as a part-time seasonal employee of the Providence public schools and the Providence recreation department.

Dale was charged with sexual assault on Friday. A 15-year-old boy said Dale pulled his shorts down and fondled him at the recreation center last month, according to a police report. The boy told police he recorded the assault on his cellphone, the report said.

Dale had told the Providence Journal in an email on Monday afternoon that the boy’s story was “a possible set up.” He told the newspaper that he had never coached the boy, who he said was a gang member.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s office said Dale had been suspended without pay.