PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Just an hour before children in Halloween costumes descended into the streets, a 29-year-old man came under gunfire in the city's west side.

Matthew Reverdes was shot once on Harrison Street at around 4 p.m. and ran for help around the corner, where he collapsed at a Dunkin' Donuts on Cedar Street. He remained conscious and able to talk to police officers for a little while, police say, but he died shortly afterward at Rhode Island Hospital.

Reverdes left behind a young daughter, Mya, who was his world, said longtime friend Rakim Sanders.

"He was a family man. He was all about his little girl," Sanders said Tuesday. "Gifts — nowadays, that to me is spelled 't-i-m-e.' And that's what he spent with her."

The two men had known each other since they were children in Head Start, said Sanders, who said Reverdes was like a brother to him. Reverdes graduated from Shea High School in 2006.

Sanders is now in Milan, Italy playing professional basketball. He said he woke up to calls and text messages telling him that Reverdes was gone.

"He had the biggest heart I know," Sanders said. "He was always there for somebody."

Reverdes was the third homicide victim in Pawtucket this year, and the second man shot to death in a month. The murder of Dylan Contreras, 23, killed in his car on Underwood Street in September, remains unsolved.

Police released scant information about the shooting and refused to release any incident reports or Reverdes' past arrest reports, citing the current investigation. That included withholding reports of his arrest in 2014 for cocaine possession, to which he pleaded this year and was sentenced to probation.

Maj. Tina Goncalves, the department's spokeswoman, did not respond to the Journal's requests for information Tuesday. Officers remained at the shooting scene at the apartment house at 54 Harrison St., where neighbors said that people were frequently in and out of the basement apartment.

Carrie LeClair, who lives across the street, said police had warned her and her husband not to buy their house back in 1982 because of trouble in the neighborhood. LeClair said they bought the house anyway, and then got a shotgun for protection.

The area never improved, LeClair said. She and other neighbors have had their houses broken into, seen drug deals and heard occasional gunshots. Police drive by, she said, but "it's never been a good, feeling-safe neighborhood."

Still, she was shocked to come home yesterday to learn that a man was murdered here. "This is very, very sad," LeClair said. "Nobody deserves to be shot like that."

City Councilman Timothy Rudd Jr., who represents this district, said Harrison Street has long been troubled, with absentee landlords and a suspected flop house at the lower end of the street.

Part of the problem, Rudd said, is that the police force has dropped to 131 officers, making it difficult to be proactive. "There's a need for more police officers and to expand our neighborhood response unit, so we're actually in the community and identifying gang members and players on the street to prevent incidents like this," he said.

"At the end of the day, that's someone's father, someone's son, someone's family member. That's a life lost," Rudd added. "We have to be vigilant, and we have to take this seriously. We can't allow people to become prisoners in their own homes."

—amilkovi@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @AmandaMilkovits