ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The first bullet went through his hip. The second one went through the middle of Alton “Dreadz” Prince’s back, crossed over his spin and came out less than a quarter inch from his left kidney. A third bullet hit a left hamstring.
“I ended up with four rounds going through, four rounds total, seven new holes.” Prince said. “So three of them went through, one of them ricocheted and stuck.”
It was July 20 of last year when Anchorage police arrived in front of the Gaslight on Fourth Avenue for a report of a shooting. There were four victims. Two had what police described as “non-life-threatening injuries,” Prince had “life-threatening injuries” reported and there was a man who had died who was later identified as 23-year-old Leroy Manogiamanu.
WATCH: Security footage shows moments surrounding deadly 2025 shooting
Prince is a well known professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter who also works security at the Gaslight.
Prince was interviewed as part of a new streaming show called “So We Asked.” It will be published on Alaska’s News Source streaming services this summer and can be found on Amazon Fire, Apple TV and Roku.
Security footage from the Gaslight Lounge shows the shooter never entered the bar before Gaslight security staff confronted him outside.
Prince said there had been a fight between two women outside and around the same time, two men were wearing masks and wouldn’t take them off after being confronted by security. That, he says, led to some back-and-forth smack talking.
He says he eventually went to grab the wrist of one of the men who had a gun.
“When I did that to disarm him, he just tucked it back in and turned on me,” Prince said, “and [he] started putting rounds in me.”
Prince said the bullets felt like he had been hit hard, or ran into something. He said he felt cold but kept trying to tell people to be calm.
“I had somebody, actually, that was helping me, ended up crying and dropping a teardrop right into my eyeball,” Prince said. “And, I said, ‘For the record, just so you know, this was her drop, dropped into my eye.’”
Prince says he’s a man of faith and never believed he’d die. He says he continues to work in security because he likes helping people.
“Somebody’s got to be anchoring the storm,” Prince said.
Prince says he also continues to fight professionally.
“The last fight I had was actually against the uncle of the kid that shot me,” Prince said.
Last month, Prince offered a reporter tips about the best place to take a punch (on the forehead). He said before his last fight, he and Manogiamanu’s uncle had a “gentleman’s conversation” before their bout.
“He ended up taking the upper hand. He got me. He got me,” Prince said. “And it was, like you said, no animosity afterward. We talked about it and it was good and we just left it there.”
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