PROVIDENCE — The house Ana Rosario Rodriguez shared with her husband, Jose Rodriguez, has a white mantel in the living room with seven framed photographs. The photographs are of Jose and Ana taken over the years with their two smiling children. On the wall near the mantel there are more photographs of them and the children and other family members.

RODRIGUEZ

Jose was always taking pictures or video of himself and his family. Whether it was going to the grocery store, the YMCA or shopping, he was usually accompanied by a family member.

In fact, he spent every moment with his family when he wasn’t working, his sister Wilma Rodriguez says.

“It was as if he knew” he would have a short time with them, she said.

Rodriguez, a cabdriver for Gonzalez Cab Inc., was shot Monday as he drove three men from Providence to Central Falls. Rodriguez had turned 42 that same day. He died the next day.

Yesterday, Ana, her brother-in-law, Ramon Rosario, his wife, Ramona Rosario, Pura Hernandez, a relative, and Wilma sat in the living room of the Rodriguez’s three-family home on River Street, making plans to send his body to the Dominican Republic to be buried. They had made an appointment to visit officials with the state’s victim’s compensation fund.

On the day Rodriguez died, there was another attempted assault on a driver for Gonzalez Cab — on Nebraska Street in Providence at 9:15 p.m., according to Evelyn Gonzalez, manager of the taxi company. As the cabbie waited, two men approached the car from different sides. When one of them dropped a gun, the cabbie sped away. Gonzalez said the caller had requested a ride from Providence to Central Falls. She told the cabbie to report the incident to the police but did not know whether he had.

The police have not made any arrests in Rodriguez’s shooting. Central Falls Police Chief Joseph Moran said the police were following leads aggressively. “It just takes a while and we want to make sure we don’t leave anything unturned,” Moran said.

Sitting in her brother’s house, Wilma made a plea to the public, asking anyone who witnessed the shooting to call the police.

“May God touch their heart and they come forward. I know people are fearful,” said Ramona Rosario, Ana’s sister-in-law.

There was sadness and anger at the senseless act of violence that took away a husband, father and brother. Ana was on the phone with her husband Monday when he told her the people he was taking to Central Falls were acting suspiciously. After he told her he was on Route 95 at Exit 27, the phone went dead. Ana called back and someone answered laughing.

“They have destroyed a family. You have a 6-year-old and a 10-year-old. They were laughing,” Wilma said angrily.

Her brother was the eldest of nine children from Constanza in the Dominican Republic. She said all his life he had been a good natured, peaceful person who took care of his siblings. He had come to the states to pursue the American dream, Wilma said.

Jose told Ana not to work so that she could be at home with their children, Jose Antonio and Anarianny. He was afraid to raise them in the United States because he felt it was dangerous and he planned to eventually return to the Dominican Republic.

Now the family talked about how Ana would survive with her children. “I don’t know what this family is going to do now. Maybe there is some way to raise money to help her,” Wilma said.

“You should go to a psychologist,” said Ramon Rosario, Ana’s brother-in-law. “There will be a time when you fall apart. Right now we are here, but there will be a time when we are gone,” Wilma told her. Ana listened silently.

Ana said she knew she had a good catch in Jose. They had been married 12 years and had known each other for 17. “He was a good father, a good husband, a good friend,” she said. “He gave us unconditional support. In all the time I’ve known him, I never remember him sad or in a bad mood. I used to ask him if he had ice in his veins because nothing made him mad.”

Her circle of friends told her she was the one who married well. “They told me I married a saint,” she said.

Listening to her family talk, Ramona shook her head sadly. “You don’t know when your time is up.”

“Yes but they loved each other every moment,” Wilma said.

tpina@projo.com