NEW ORLEANS — The pizza delivery driver who was fatally shot in a virtually deserted stretch of the Lower Ninth Ward early Tuesday morning was killed during a robbery in which he had less than $30, a Domino’s executive said.

The victim, Michael Price, leaves behind a wife and three children, ages 2 to 8. Police said the 36-year-old was shot and killed just before 1 a.m. in the 6100 block of North Roman.

He was pronounced dead inside of his delivery car, the engine still running when police arrived.

A resident on the next block said she heard about six shots, then saw a car speeding away from the scene while peeking through her window.

“It was weird,” said Tremica Thompson, who recently moved into the neighborhood. “No cars pass on that street at all.”

In fact, there is only one occupied house on the block, which is mostly a combination of overgrown lots and Hurricane Katrina-damaged homes.

Domino’s officials said that no one in the surrounding area had ordered pizza, which the victim was delivering from the pizza chain’s outlet on Franklin Avenue.

New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Michael Harrison confirmed that Price was not in the area of his destination.

“The information was that he was in route to make a delivery, two deliveries, but never made it to that destination,” Harrison said. “And so this is an ongoing investigation. The facts are very preliminary. And we’re working through trying to identify every single thing we need to know about this.”

Officials with Domino’s said the victim had been a loyal employee for about a year. Regional Vice-President Robert Tedesco said the man had just returned to delivering pizzas after getting his car repaired. In the interim, willing to do anything to help the business and support his family, he went to the Franklin Avenue franchise location and answered phones inside the shop.

He is the second Domino’s deliveryman to be shot and killed in the past six months. Richard Yeager was killed in Mid-City in September while delivering pizzas. Two juveniles wearing electronic ankle monitors have been charged in that murder, stirring controversy about the city’s home incarceration program run by the Sheriff’s Office.

Tedesco said the back-to-back murders of delivery drivers has hit the local Domino’s chain hard.

“I personally knew him,” Tedesco said. “And it’s very hard. When you go to work and you don’t come home, that’s not right.”

The regional franchise company, one of the largest Domino’s chains in the country, is providing counseling to employees who worked with the victim. To help the family, the company has provided the victim’s wife with a car because her husband’s car is now locked up as evidence in the homicide.

Harrison said many officers were emotional about the killing given Domino’s recent partnership with the NOPD to help the city’s officer recruitment effort. Two weeks ago, the chain started printing the city’s “Get Behind the Badge” advertising slogan on pizza boxes delivered by 33 area stores.

“Extremely frustrating, very sad incident,” Harrison said. “They’re part of our family now. They’ve stepped up to help us in so many ways. And so this reaches the heart and soul of even our police officers.”

On top of the standard $2,500 Crimestoppers reward, Tedesco said the company is adding a $7,500 in reward money for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 822-1111.