A Central Falls police car passes a makeshift shrine for Edelmiro Roman at the corner of Dexter and Darling streets after 9 last night — the time a new curfew for youths under age 18 took effect. Roman was killed Sunday night while walking home.

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The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

CENTRAL FALLS — Central Falls High School senior Luis Pastor sat in the school library yesterday with a thick binder that contained the work he planned to present as part of the portfolio required for graduation.

Pastor was dressed for the occasion: He wore a crisp plaid dress shirt, his slacks were pressed and his hair was trimmed. But his heart wasn’t in it. On Sunday night, someone shot and killed his good friend and classmate, 16-year-old Edelmiro Roman, near Dexter and Darling streets. Roman was one of two teenagers killed over the weekend.

On Tuesday, Pastor visited a memorial that classmates set up on Dexter Street. “My mind isn’t in this. It’s hard,” Pastor said yesterday. “I’m afraid I’m gonna forget stuff.”

Sue Cranston, the administrator of the graduation portfolios program, said that when Pastor told her he was struggling, she reminded him how hard he had worked on it and told him that Roman would have wanted him to succeed. When a group of five educators arrived at Pastor’s workstation, the young man who loves computers and music presented his portfolio.

After weathering the trauma of losing a student, and rumors that there would be retaliation, Central Falls High School was trying to return to normal yesterday. The school was quiet and more students were in class yesterday than the previous day, when fear kept more than half of them home.

On Tuesday, Mayor Charles Moreau, seeking to quell fears over the shooting of the two teens, announced before a group of more than 300 at the Ralph Holden Community Center that youths under 18 would have to be off the streets from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The group had gathered to talk about ways to prevent further violence.

That same night, after 9 p.m., Central Falls police officers took to the streets to broadcast the curfew, which went into effect immediately. No arrests were made.

From her home on Cowden Street, Central Falls High School student Michelle Torres, 16, could hear the police. They were driving down the streets, past three- and four-deckers, making announcements over their loudspeakers that anybody under 18 years old had to be off the streets after 9 p.m.

Torres said she thought the broadcasts were kind of funny, resonating through the night, but admitted that for now, it might keep people safe. As time goes by, and the weather gets warmer, she said she didn’t think people would adhere to it. Torres said her curfew is 10 p.m. and she is usually out with her friends. “If it’s nice out we hang out at the park or drive around,” she said. Young people in the city congregate at Jenks Park, Higginson Park or the Cowden Courts.

Jesus Munoz, 16, said that no matter what the curfew is, “A shooting can happen any time of the day.”

Roman was walking home after 11 p.m. Sunday when he was killed. Helder Tomar, of Harvey Street in Pawtucket, was shot at 4 p.m. Saturday in Jenks Park. Anthony Strobert, 19, has been charged with Tomar’s murder. From what the police could piece together from witnesses, Tomar and Strobert got into a fight at Jenks Park. The police say that Tomar apparently pulled out a gun and shot Strobert, but that Strobert managed to wrest the gun away from him and shot and killed him. The police have said that Roman’s death may be retaliation for the Saturday shooting. No arrests have been made in that case.

Strobert, who was at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, was taken to the hospital yesterday for treatment of a medical condition, according to Tracey Z. Poole, a state corrections spokeswoman.

With fears that Central Falls and Pawtucket youth may be feuding, Schools Supt. Frances Gallo worried about the fact that Pawtucket students are let out early on Wednesdays. Several officers were posted outside the high school, some on streets and others in front. Police cruisers and SUVs circled repeatedly. When school let out, the police quickly dispatched students.

At the community center, director Angelo Garcia said that plans were under way to prevent additional violence. Channel One, which is housed in the community center and works with young people, is planning a summit with other social-service agencies, in hopes of reaching youths in Central Falls and Pawtucket.

Garcia said that he met yesterday with Gallo, the principal of Calcutt Middle School, the Calcutt resource officer and Teny Gross, the executive director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, to talk about the possibility of bringing street outreach workers to Central Falls. “Street outreach workers have been effective in Providence and Boston. It would be a person to work in support of police,” Garcia said.

The curfew stipulates that youths under 18 cannot be in a public place, a car, operating or parked, or be on the premises of any establishment in the city after 9 p.m. without a parent or adult guardian. A person under the age of 18 out after 9 p.m. on an errand must have a note from the parent or guardian stipulating the errand. Young people coming from work after 9 p.m. would require a certified card of employment.

Shortly before 9 p.m. last night, a young woman who declined to give her name began lighting dozens of candles at the memorial site at the corner of Dexter and Darlington streets, just a few blocks away from the police station. Eleven teddy bears nestled among the candles at the foot of a traffic-light post, and farewell signs and prayer cards hung on an electrical box attached to the post. “RIP Edelmiro, we’ll miss you.”

Two young men drove by on bicycles, pausing at the makeshift shrine.

“It’s stressful. He didn’t do nothing to nobody, and it’s wrong, what happened,” said Jesus Paneto, 17. Paneto said he was on his way home, and said he supported the curfew.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Paneto said. “Because being out here is nothing but trouble.”

Lucia Therriault brought her son Jaron, 11, to see the memorial on their way home.

“I just wanted to show him what was going on,” Therriault said. “It is just so sad. I just keep telling my kids to be careful, to go straight home after school and to not fight with anybody. I’ve lived here for 26 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

By 9 p.m., the curfew appeared to be working, with very few people out on the streets.

A few minutes past 9, the young woman who had lit the candles paused before a photograph of her friend. She held up her cell-phone camera, capturing one last picture of his face. Beside his photograph was a prayer card, with a quote from St. Ambrose.

“We have loved them during life,

Let us not abandon them,

Until we have conducted them by our prayers

Into the house of the Lord.”

The girl silently made the sign of the cross, turned from the corner, and walked away into the night.

With reports from Michael P. McKinney and Jennifer D. Jordan

tpina@projo.com