By the time crime scene investigators wrapped up their work at this corner of Chinatown Sunday morning, Ryan Chen, 26, would already be dead.
The always smiling graduate student was gunned down outside the Tan Do Chinese Restaurant as he chatted on the phone.
"The policeman told me he was shot three times," said Chen's friend Ling Luo. "Who could shoot someone three times?"
Hours before the shooting, community activist Ling Luo met up with Ryan at the Houston Rockets game. They agreed to meet the next day to do some volunteer work, but Ling would never see the young man again.
"I can't believe he's gone, I just can't believe it, I looked at his picture and his last words to me was see you tomorrow Auntie Luo," she said.
Saturday night, Ryan wanted to go to Chinatown to eat a late dinner, never knowing what would happen next.
"I was horrified I was so shocked, it seems unbelievable that Ryan is such a happy go lucky, open minded, full of life," said TSU Professor Dr. Latita Sen.
Sen was one of Ryan's professors at Texas Southern University. She says the entire urban planning department is devastated, but in his short time in America, Ryan touched a lot of people including council member Peter Brown. He was also one of Ryan's professors.
"We have to do something about crime in Houston, we got to do something different than what we've been doing, it's getting out of hand," Brown said.
