CENTRAL FALLS — A 17-year-old boy playing basketball in front of his apartment with his 13-year-old brother at 2 a.m. yesterday morning was shot in the leg after an exchange with people who drove by in a car, according to the police.

The city has had a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew for people under 18 for three months after two teenagers were shot to death in April.

Blanca Palma, 41, said her son Jeremy Palma was taken to Rhode Island Hospital and was treated and released.

Police Chief Joseph P. Moran III said that the boys did not violate the curfew because they were in front of their house. “The problem is it’s 2 in the morning [and they are outside]. We are looking for assistance from parents. Give us assistance and keep the kids in,” Moran said.

A worried Palma stayed home from work yesterday and kept her three sons inside the apartment.

“If you are not safe at your home, where can you be safe?” Palma said.

Jeremy Palma was restless yesterday morning and could not sleep. He went downstairs with his brother to play basketball with a hoop made from a milk crate nailed to a utility pole in front of their three-decker on Fuller Avenue, Blanca Palma said. That’s the same street where a year ago, almost to the day, Jose Rodriguez, a cab driver from Gonzalez Cab, was fatally shot. On Wednesday, 30 cab drivers from various taxi companies in Providence visited Fuller Avenue to commemorate the first-year anniversary of his death.

While the Palma boys were outside, a car drove up to them and there was an exchange. A man in the car pulled out a gun and shot at them, Moran said.

Blanca Palma said Jeremy pushed his younger brother out of the way and got shot in the leg. She was upstairs and said she heard “pop, pop, pop” like a firecracker and looked out but did not see anything. Then Jeremy came running into the apartment. “Jeremy told me he thought he had been shot. Then I saw his leg bleeding. I tied his leg with a towel and called 911,” Blanca Palma said.

“They weren’t out there 20 minutes. My husband died last August. Now my son got shot in front of his own home. That’s very scary,” Palma said. Her 13-year-old son wants to move away from the neighborhood, she said.

Palma said that since 19-year-old Helder Tomar and 16-year-old Edelmiro Roman were shot to death in the city, she does not let her children out of the house. Palma said that Jeremy is not a troublemaker known to police. He doesn’t go out. He stays at home playing video games with friends, she said. She sends her two younger boys to summer camp at Ralph Holden Community Center in town. “I got them in football and basketball. That’s what I do so they aren’t bored and won’t be hanging out,” she said.

Palma said police told her not to give out details of what happened during the shooting.

Moran said that police are investigating the shooting and said that specifics of how many people were involved in the shooting and details of the car involved were still being worked on.

Since the curfew was enacted, the police have been educating and warning people who are out past curfew, Moran said. He said he could not remember the last time someone was arrested for violating the curfew, which means it’s likely that parents are helping by keeping their children inside the house after curfew. “Either the parents are helping or the kids are going somewhere else,” he said.

Yesterday afternoon, Blanca Palma was planning to leave her home and take her boys with her. “I don’t want to stay here tonight,” she said.

tpina@projo.com