Teen shot, killed at party in South Providence

By Paul Grimaldi

Journal Staff Writer PROVIDENCE — A city teenager, partying with friends in the backyard of a house on Friendship Street, was shot and killed early yesterday morning, according to Providence police.

Angelo Camarena, 17, of Somerset Street, died at Rhode Island Hospital yesterday, after being driven there by other party-goers, the police said.

The police were called to Friendship and Pearl streets about 1:40 a.m., where they learned Camarena had been shot while he was in the rear yard of 382 Friendship St.

The police have yet to identify a suspect in the shooting death — the fourth homicide in the city this year.

Camarena, “a known gang associate,” according to Providence police Maj. Thomas F. Oates, was among 20 to 30 people at 382 Friendship St. when an unidentified assailant walked up to the corner lot and opened fire. The gunman fired several shots, striking Camarena once, before running away.

The shooting did not appear to be random, Oates said, though it’s unclear whether Camarena was targeted by the gunman.

Yesterday afternoon, there were no signs of the altercation outside the three-story wood-frame house in Upper South Providence and no one answered a visitor’s knocks on the door of the multi-unit house.

Last night, outside the Camarena family apartment at the corner of Pine and Somerset, in the Indian Village apartment complex, friends and family had set up a memorial of 17 thin white candles.

Rosary beads and a photo of Camarena –– slim, smiling, and wearing a dark Hollister T-shirt –– were taped to the side of the apartment, near the candles. Among the 25 young people was John “Y.C.” Rodriguez, Camarena’s 19-year-old cousin.

He said Camarena had been attending Ocean Tides, a residential program for at-risk boys in Narragansett, for the past two months and only came home for the weekend.

“We don’t know what happened. We were told it was a thing at a birthday party,” said Rodriguez. “The family is going crazy.”

With five sisters, Camarena was the second youngest of the family, which is originally from the Dominican Republic and came to Providence from New York City, said Rodriguez.

As Camarena’s friends wept, a police cruiser stood watch about half a block down and music blared from a party across the street. At one point, an unmarked car with members of the police department’s Gang Unit slowly passed by.

–– With staff reports from Philip Marcelo

pgrimaldi@projo.com