This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Concord High freshman Isiah Rosario, 15, who Rhode Island police say was killed in a shooting in Providence early Saturday, was remembered as a young man with a “magnetic” personality who was still trying to get acclimated to his new community.
News of Rosario’s death, which came over the weekend, continued to shake many of his classmates, said Concord High principal Michael Reardon. Students have met and will continue to meet with counselors throughout the week, and as needed, while classmates plan a memorial.
An investigation is ongoing into the fatal shooting. No arrests have been made as of press time.
Providence police responded to March Street around 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning for reports of a shooting, said Providence Police Sgt. Al DeChristofano. Upon arrival, they found Rosario laying on the ground suffering from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Officers performed CPR on Rosario while waiting for rescue to arrive. He was transported via ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
A bike, believed to be Rosario’s, was taken into possession by police.
Rosario was first reported missing from Concord on April 1 by his mother, who believed he ran away, said Concord Deputy Chief John Thomas. Police had tracked him to the Providence area prior to the shooting and notified authorities.
“From what we were told, he had family down there but we don’t know who he was staying with,” he said. “They [police] contacted us when they identified him because they knew he was missing out of Concord.”
Rosario moved to Concord from Providence toward the end of the 2021-2022 school year, Concord High School administration wrote in a news release sent Saturday evening.
“He was a very bright kid but the thing that everyone remembers about him is his personality,” said Reardon. “He had an infectious personality, even when he got in trouble, which happened from time to time. He seemed to get along with everybody. He was magnetic, he had a lot of friends, a great smile and a lot of energy.”
Rosario had a passion for basketball, Reardon continued, but due to academic challenges, he was ineligible to play on the freshmen boys’ team. In the weeks prior to his death, he was working hard to acclimate to his new community and get his grades up so he could return to sports, he said.
“It’s an abrupt change for a 15-year-old kid to come to a brand new school district but for what it’s worth, I don’t have any reservations that he was going to find himself and take off and have a wonderful future,” Reardon said. “He was in the process of doing that when what happened over the weekend happened.”
The news of Rosario’s death, and the little that is currently known, left the high school community looking for answers.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’ve certainly lost students before but I have never had a student die from violence like this,” Reardon said. “It’s really shocking, genuinely shocking, to have a 15-year-old young man lose his life this way.”
In 2021, the city of Providence, which has nearly 194,000 residents, saw 22 homicides, 20 of which were caused by firearms. By comparison, Concord, which has a population of almost 44,000 residents, had three victims of homicide, all of which were killed by a firearm, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Any act of gun violence impacts our entire community, especially when it involves the youth,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in a statement to WPRI, a television news network in Rhode Island. “We extend our sincerest condolences to the family.”
At this time, the investigation remains active and ongoing.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visitcollaborativenh.org.
