PROVIDENCE -- The aroma of hot dogs, chicken wings and burgers drifted from the corner of the Billy Taylor Park to the basketball courts and past a stage where rappers rhymed to a disc jockey's beat.

While most of the rhymes were about having top-notch on-stage skills, representing one's neighborhood or delivering a crowd-pleasing line, every so often the rappers would pause to pay homage to the young man whose tragic death brought them together.

"Joe Hector, rest in peace!"

More than 150 people gathered at the East Side park on Camp Street yesterday to mark the five-year anniversary of Hector's death by calling for an end to street violence and celebrating life.

It was five years ago yesterday that 17-year-old Joseph Hector was fatally shot as he walked with friends along Camp Street near Cypress Street.

Authorities have said they believe the teenager, who was a former honor student who worked at a nursing home, was shot by a man in a Jeep in a case of mistaken identity.

Immediately after the shooting, Hector's family, who ran a church from their Camp Street home, asked youths in the neighborhood to end the violence and not retaliate in Hector's name. Vigils and meetings were held to devise a strategy to address the problem of street violence.

Every year, the Hector family has marked the boy's death by hosting an event designed to foster unity.

"The purpose is to have the kids come together and not forget" the victims of street violence, said Betty Hector, the slain teen's mother, "because there's still a lot of senseless violence. . . ."

Betty Hector said yesterday that she hopes the event will encourage local youths to do their part to end such violence.

She said her daughter and one of her surviving sons have taken on the task of organizing the event every year. They canvass the Mount Hope neighborhood seeking donations to help purchase the food for the free event and distribute fliers inviting people to attend.

"Everything I do is positive," said Sam "DJ Legs" Hector, 26, who staffed the DJ table yesterday and helped to coordinate the event. "I mean, we provide music and we invited people from all sides of the city, from Fall River, New Bedford and New York. We try to get everyone to come together. . . . It's all fun."

Young people gathered around the stage and danced, while others enjoyed the music from a distance. Some wore shirts bearing Hector's name or his image.

The police have said much of the teen violence stems from feuds between groups of youths, including those who live in different areas of the Providence.

Teny Gross, director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, and Councilman Kevin Jackson attended the event yesterday and decried that street violence has claimed so many lives in Rhode Island and nationwide.

While the violence locally has not escalated, the youths involved in such crime are getting younger.

In Providence, "we're policing smarter," by having community police, Gross said. But such programs are employed as a reaction to the problem; not enough is being done in American society to prevent youth violence, he said.

While his agency has a program that reaches out to youths, Gross said, American society needs to do more to engage them in positive activities and prevent them from dropping out of school.

Instead of taking away the arts and sports, charter schools should be created with the arts the primary focus, he said.

"As a society, we have failed to inspire our youth . . . and show them that they have something to live for."

kdavis@projo.com / (401) 277-7353