Family remembers club shooting victim

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A fatal shooting outside a Providence strip club has left friends and family of the victim looking for answers.

Police say they don't know if the 28-year-old victim, Paulo Jorge Barbosa, was targeted in the shooting, but Barbosa's family said Monday he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Whoever knew him -- they were really lucky to have in in their lives, in their life," said the victim's niece, Tatiana Lopes.

Officers say Barbosa was shot outside Providence's Club Balloons around 5:30 Sunday morning. According to police, a fight between two rival groups started inside the club, then spilled outside into the parking lot.

His family does not believe anyone would have a reason to hurt him.

It's the second person shot and killed at Club Balloons. Two years ago, 21-year-old Angel Vargas of Woonsocket was shot and killed.

Police say the investigation into Sunday's shooting continues. It was Providence's tenth homicide this year.

Nicknamed Benjo, Barbosa was born in Cape Verde and moved to Rhode Island when he was two. He most recently worked as a landscaper and is remembered a devoted son, brother, uncle and father. Barbosa is survived by a large extended family and his five-year-old son.

"I'll never forget when I would walk into my grandma's house and he would say, 'hey beautiful,'" said another of Barbosa's nieces, Eryanna Braz-Barbosa. "And I guess when I get older when I walk in the house, I'll say, 'hey uncle Benjo,' and he won't be there."