Family members remember man killed in IHOP parking lot
HOUSTON, TX (KTRK) -- The Houston Police Department are investigating the fatal shooting of a man at an IHOP parking lot Saturday morning.
The family has identified the 20-year-old victim as Jaime Hernandez.
Family members have started a GoFundMe to offset the cost of Hernandez's funeral expenses.
"He was young. He was barely getting his life together, and he was always happy. I don't understand who would be so selfish to do this to him. And it just hurts me," Crystalee Valazquez, one of Hernandez's friends, said of his death.
Hernandez's family called him "Flaco."
VIDEO: Family member remembers shooting victim
"Growing up, he's always been a little skinny kid. So that name stayed with him growing up," said his uncle Isaac Train.
Family members say he was saving up to buy his dream car, a Nissan GT-R.
"I don't know what their situation was. I can't talk for them. But they took away a kid that had his whole life ahead. That's what hurts me. Now he's gone," Train said of the suspects in in nephew's murder.
VIDEO: Man fatally shot in IHOP parking lot, police say
Police say the suspects followed Hernandez and his friends from a check cashing business to an IHOP restaurant on the 6000 block of the Gulf Freeway.
They were driving a small, white, older-model sedan.
One male, wearing a gray hoodie and described as being in his early 20's, about 5'8" and 130 pounds, was armed with a gun.
He approached the driver's side door and knocked on the window with the gun.
The second male, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and basketball shorts, and described only as being about 6'2" and weighing 120 pounds with long "puffy afro" hair, approached on the passenger side.
When the armed male made demands to Hernandez, he refused and attempted to drive away, the suspect allegedly fired four shots, one of which hit the Hernandez, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Both suspects then got into the white vehicle, believed to be a Nissan or Honda, driven by a third black male suspect. The suspects then fled the scene.
Anyone with information in this case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
