Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

People watch from the balconies of Afton Gardens apartments Wednesday while police investigate the death of Steve Edwin Orange Jr., 46, a former Roanoke police officer and armed security guard at the complex.

Correction (July 15, 2011: 10:15 a.m.): An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Joe Huddleston’s residence and marital status. Slain security guard Steve Orange lived in Vinton with his wife and their recently adopted child. This story has been corrected. | Our corrections policy

Slain security guard Steve Edwin Orange Jr. patrolled a neighborhood beset by crime -- from gunshot wounds to assaults to thefts.

So far this year, Roanoke police officers have been called to the Afton Gardens apartments once for a gunshot wound, five times for assaults, once for a robbery and three times for theft, according to records.

Orange, 46, was an ex-Roanoke police officer who was a partner in the private security company hired to police Afton Gardens, on Hunt Avenue in northwest Roanoke. He was found shot to death in his parked SUV at the complex early Wednesday.

Roanoke Police Capt. Monti Lee said several detectives were assigned to the homicide investigation. He declined to say whether police know of suspects or a motive.

Some Afton Gardens residents described Orange as rough and profane. He vigorously enforced the complex's 9 p.m. curfew, they said.

His colleagues said he was a religious man who doted on his wife and two children.

"He was a very compassionate guy," said Joe Huddleston, vice president of State Security, which employed Orange before he started his own company in 2010. "He had a job to do. They told him, 'Your job is to enforce this curfew that we've imposed.' You know that the residents aren't going to like this, especially when they want to be out on a warm summer night."

Orange lived in Vinton with his wife, Stephanie, and their recently adopted child. He was a Roanoke police officer for 11 years until he resigned in 1999. While an officer, he met Huddleston, also a city police officer.

Huddleston said Orange, tall and broad-shouldered, could be intimidating. But Orange had police experience as a community liaison and provided good service as a security guard, he said.

"I've watched him work with our customers," Huddleston said. "He was always friendly with the public."

Some Afton Gardens residents recalled episodes in which Orange used what they said was too much force with children violating the neighborhood curfew, and escalated encounters with four-letter language and threats.

Orange, as a registered armed security guard, had the power to arrest and turn suspects over to the police. Orange and the other officers who work for his security company, ProTecht, wear brown polo shirts with their last names on them, and pistols holstered on their belts.

Afton Gardens managers in Roanoke referred requests for comment to WinnCompanies, a Boston-based property development and management firm that did not return messages.

In March, Orange was accused by an Afton Gardens resident of forcing his way into her apartment and groping her. Orange accused the resident of assault. Charges against both were later dismissed.

Huddleston conceded Orange could have been forceful with residents violating curfew -- if the situation warranted. Orange would be polite to those who obeyed him, Huddleston said. For those who resisted, he would use a louder voice.

"He had to be firm, otherwise, they would run over him," said Huddleston, whose State Security does not allow its officers to carry firearms. "Steve was given a set of instructions by the people who hired him, and he was simply carrying out those instructions."