Man, shot execution-style at Applebee’s, remembered as loving dad and friend

LAWRENCE (Mercer) — Family and friends of a man gunned down execution-style inside an Applebee's remembered him at a candlelight vigil on Tuesday.

Devin Smith, 23, was shot just after midnight as he sat at the bar inside the Route 1 restaurant near the Quaker Bridge Mall, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office. Prosecutor Angelo Onofri says his office will be looking at surveillance video from inside the restaurant and gathering as much information as possible from customers who witnessed the shooting.

Smith was the father to a daughter named Olivia, according to the Facebook page of the mother, Briana Anderson.

"No matter what we’ve been through, you still made a way to make me smile! Thank you for the greatest gift ever, I can cherish Olivia for the rest of her life and to know you will always be looking down on her, seeing the beautiful smart and intelligent young lady she will grow into," she wrote.

Friend Kavon Marshall released balloons into the air as he told NBC Philadelphia he considered Smith his brother.

"Devin Dynomite Smith damn my li'l bro living in the sky, I got to say goodbye. All he wanted to do was shine !! Well I know you wanted to always be there for Olivia. You can do that now. I got you covered down here," Marshall wrote on his Facebook page.

Onofri said the gunman was a black man in his mid-20s who left the restaurant in a black SUV.

"We have several promising leads and are hoping to make an arrest soon," Onofri said.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ.

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