By Jeremy Walsh
“He had a tender heart,” said Prince's grandmother, Joann Prince, who helped raise him. “Of my three grandsons, he was the most affectionate.”Prince, a construction worker who lived in the Ravenswood houses on 35th Avenue, was found outside La Familia Restaurant and Bar on 23rd Street in Long Island City at 4:59 a.m. with a gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.The incident began when a fight erupted at a private party inside the restaurant and continued outside, police said, with as many as 20 people shouting insults and hurling bottles at one another.Police recovered three shell casings from a .45-caliber handgun at the scene. It was not clear why Prince was targeted, authorities said.Prince leaves behind a son, Dondre, 10, and a daughter, Janazia, 7.”He loved his kids and they loved him,” Joann Prince said.Dondre said his first reaction when he heard about his father's death was to say he didn't deserve it.”I'm only 10,” he said. “I need a dad to look up to.”Tanaya Ellerbee, Dondre's mother, said she had been upset with Joseph Prince when he kept Dondre through Christmas, “but now, I'm glad he did that.”Services for Prince were scheduled to be held Thursday at the Center of Hope at 12-11 40th Ave. in Long Island City, starting with a 9 a.m. viewing.Hours after the shooting, NYPD detectives walked in and out of the closed restaurant, which is located under the elevated subway tracks on a block with few other habitable buildings. Outside on the sidewalk, spatters of what appeared to be blood were visible a few feet from the entrance to the establishment.A police source said the restaurant routinely books private parties on Sundays, and usually is not the source of much disruption. The individuals who booked the party lived in another part of Queens, the source said.Joann Prince said she hoped the death of her grandson would haunt his killer. But she said the other man may be troubled himself and was not even sure jail was the right answer.”I don't really wish for any revenge,” she said.Joseph Prince's son, however, had little doubt.”They have to catch him,” Dondre said. “I want him to go away for life.”The murder was the first of the year for the 108th Precinct, which saw only one homicide in 2007.Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
