Sarahi Rosario, right, and Carol Peloquin, of the Victim Support Center put up posters in Central Falls in hopes of finding the killer of Jose Rodriguez, the cab driver from Providence who was shot and killed last summer

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

CENTRAL FALLS — Those warm summer days when residents sat on their porches or strolled the streets are long gone and dirty snow now covers part of the sidewalks as social worker Sheila Capece walks along Dexter Street passing out fliers.

Six months have passed since Gonzalez Cab driver Jose Rodriguez was shot nearby on Fuller Avenue in the middle of the day and no one has come forward with information that might help police find the person or persons who killed him.

But last week a person called the Victim Support Center where Capece is the director, to make a donation of $4,000 that will go toward a reward for information that leads to the arrest of Rodriguez’s killers. The donor wanted to remain anonymous, Capece said. The Victim Support Center is a program of the Institute for the Practice of Nonviolence based in Cranston.

Capece is stapling fliers to telephone poles. She is visiting restaurants, hair salons, mini markets, and bookstores asking for permission to post the notices on doors or windows. The text says: “Murder of Gonzalez Cab taxi driver in Central Falls July 16, 2007. Reward $4,000. Call Det. Nichole Rave at 727-7411 extension 3123.” Police Detective Franco Delande is helping Capece post and pass out the fliers. Two other women from the Victim Support Center are passing out fliers in another part of the city.

Last July 16, Rodriguez, 42, a cabdriver for Gonzalez Cab Inc., was shot as he drove three men from Providence to Central Falls. The police found him in his cab on Fuller Avenue between Sumner and Garfield streets. He died the following day. Rodriguez was married with two children.

“The family is hoping that someone will come forward,” Capece said.

Capt. Kevin Guindon said the department has had no breaks in the case and that he hoped the reward would bring someone forward.

One of the first places Capese enters is Vision Libreria Christiana, a Christian bookstore. “This is the cab driver that was killed down the street. We are offering a reward for information. Can we hang this up?” she asks owner Victor Reyes. He remembers the incident. He says yes.

Jose’s wife, Ana Rosario, said that the donation of money for a reward gave her hope.

“It filled me with hope after six moths that someone donated that. There are still good people who believe in families and justice,” she said. Rosario said that finding the people responsible for her husband’s death is important to her family.

“I have two children, 11 and 7, who wake up calling for their father. At Christmas and New Year’s they had presents but nothing made them happy because their father was not with them. They took away our pillar from our family, that is why my children and I need to see who did this, why they did this. What did they gain?”

Rosario said that she started working with Capece and Victim Support just after her husband’s death and that the help she has received has helped her and her children to cope. Through them she has joined a support group. Her children receive therapy. “They have been like a ray of light. It’s very important for people who lost someone they love. It’s very important to be able to talk to someone,” she said.

Rosario said she keeps her children busy with activities. They go to karate and swimming and other sports. “I try to keep them doing the same activities they did before. I want to keep them in their routine,” she said. She has not been able to start the daycare service she ran because of her emotional state and the family is surviving on her husband’s Social Security mostly, she said. “I hope to be able to get myself out of this and start the business again,” she said.

On Dexter Street, Capece ducks into El Paisa, a Colombian restaurant, and then moves toward a hair salon. “I used to be a hairdresser before I was a social worker. They know everything,” she said.

tpina@projo.com