Family members remembered the Virginian-Pilot carrier shot and killed while on his route early Wednesday morning as a “good Christian man” who worked two jobs to support his family.

John Price Jr., 50, was shot shortly after 4 a.m. Wednesday in the 100 block of Brewer Avenue.

“He always took care of his family,” said Lola Price, the wife of the victim. The two had been married for seven years, and Price worked two jobs to provide for the family.

Price said she was concerned about her husband being out in the early hours of the morning carrying the paper, and sometimes she wanted to go with him.

“He wanted me to stay home and let him do the job,” Price said.

Bill Johnson, the home delivery manager for the Virginian-Pilot, said Price consistently showed up to do two routes, seven days a week.

“He was one of these guys that was trying to make ends meet and support his family,” Johnson said. “We’re all still kind of in shock about it around here.”

Johnson called Price vibrant and hardworking.

“To have him end his existence this way is just terrible.”

Price also worked full-time at Ferguson Manufacturing in Suffolk. One of his supervisors there, who didn’t want to be named, said Price helped take care of her father during an illness.

“His wife took care of my father for about four years before he died,” she said. “John would get off from work and go over there and give him a bath or just be with him.”

She added that he was a “very good employee” who was liked by everyone. Price worked as a steel fabricator at the company.

“He’s going to be missed by all communities.”

Cierra Goodwyn, Price’s niece, was devastated by her uncle’s loss.

“He was a good Christian man who worked hard trying to make a living,” she said.

The family gathered at Price’s Kentucky Avenue home as they learned of the shooting Wednesday. Goodwyn said she hoped the shooter would be arrested soon, and she encouraged anybody who knows something about the crime to call Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

“Somebody might know something,” she said.