Family asks for public’s help in solving murder case

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Carlos Rivera was killed in November 2016 at age 28, but for his children, the emotions are still raw.

“I thought it was fake,” Christian Rivera, 11, said through tears as he recalled the moment he learned his father died. “I thought it was joking.”

Carlos’ sister Krystle Rivera remembered the moment she had to call her parents with the news that their son was dead.

“All I could hear was the screams from them on the other end of the phone, and they hung up on me,” she said. “I’m really traumatized from that whole day.”

The trauma is made worse by the fact that more than three years later, there have still been no arrests.

When police last spoke on this crime shortly after it happened, they said the killing was likely targeted.

Family members say they’re surprised police haven’t made more progress, considering the multiple surveillance cameras outside the building on Cranston Street in Providence where he died — and several other people who were inside when he was shot.

“No one in the apartment is being held accountable,” said Carlos’ mother, Angela Emery. “You were there. You have to know something.”

An anonymous person is offering a $10,000 reward.

And Emery is begging anyone with information to come forward to help keep her family safe.

“I can’t begin to raise them until I have closure,” she said. “I need to know who, why. I need to know that they’re safe, that I’m safe. I need to know that someone else I love won’t be killed by the same person, or any other mother has to go through this, or any other children have to go through this. Why is that not the goal, to get this person off the streets?”

©WLNE-TV/ABC6 2020