Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson’s family announced Thursday a new foundation for families of murder victims.

The Hudson-King Foundation for Families of Slain Victims is named in honor of the singer-actress’s slain mother Darnell Hudson Donerson, brother Jason Hudson and nephew Julian King.

“The specific purpose of the Foundation is to care for the needs of families who have lost relatives to a violent crime,” the family says in a statement. “This encompasses their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter as well as grief counseling.”

Donations to the Hudson-King Foundation can be sent:
c/o Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson, LLP
Attn: William L. Abrams, Esq.
237 West 35th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10001

The foundation announcement followed a prayer vigil Wednesday night in Chicago.

“Jennifer sang her first song in this church – she said her first prayer in this church,” her cousin Shari Nichols Witt said of the Pleasant Gift Missionary Baptist Church. Witt also spoke fondly of the actress-singer’s slain nephew, saying 7-year-old Julian King “seemed like he was ahead of his time.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who spoke at the vigil, told PEOPLE that Hudson, 27, and her family “are overwhelmed by the suddenness and the unexpectedness of it all. This family knows triumph, and they also know tragedy.”

As the community grieved the loss of the Dreamgirls star’s relatives, the 27-year-old parolee considered a suspect in their shooting deaths, William Balfour, remained in police custody Thursday.

Balfour – the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister Julia – was being held on an alleged parole violation.

A friend of Jennifer Hudson says he tried to warn the family about William “Flex” Balfour, who is currently considered a “person of interest” in the shooting deaths of Hudson’s mom, Darnell; brother, Jason and 7-year-old nephew, Julian.

Balfour, 27 – who is divorced from Hudson’s sister, Julia, a bus driver – got into a huge fight with Julia, Darnell and Jason about a month ago, a neighbor says in the newest issue of Us Weekly. James Peyton, Hudson’s ex-fiance, was also present.

See Jennifer Hudson’s family album.

“Flex tried to start a fistfight with Jason, and James beat up Flex,” the neighbor adds.

Shortly after, Flex began to threaten the family, saying “he would kill Julia and mess up everyone in the house,” the source tells Us.

The supposed reason of the feud? TMZ.com reports Balfour clashed with the family after Julia claimed he sold one of their cars without permission.

“Flex was crazy, but Jason never took him seriously,” the source tells Us. “Jason always thought he would be safe, that he could protect himself.”

The estranged couple had screaming matches, and had “been having problems, but I never expected anything like this,” neighbor Angela Russell admits to Us.

(Flex’s mother, Michele Davis Balfour, insists her son “had nothing to do with this.”)

Balfour is currently being held on violation of parole stemming from an attempted murder conviction in 1999. The AP reports that he was arrested on June 19 for allegedly having a rock of crack cocaine in his car – but his parole was not revoked then.

Meanwhile, Hudson is determined to hold her family together as she grieves for her mother, brother and nephew – whom she was especially close to.

“Jennifer was like [Julian's] second mom,” Ernest Moore, a neighbor who is related by marriage, tells Us. “Whenever she was around, she spent a lot of time with the boy.”

For more on Hudson’s heartbreak, and how the family will move forward, pick up the newest issue of Us Weekly, on stands now.

Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a>
CNN’s Nancy Grace speaks to the mother of William Balfour, ‘person of interest’ in the Jennifer Hudson family murders.