Business owner shot outside his catering company in southwest Houston

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A man was shot in front of his business Wednesday morning. Efrain Cervantes owns a catering business in the middle of a strip shopping center on Bissonnet near Fondren. There's a possibility he may have been targeted by robbers, who study the arrival and departure habits of business owners.

It was Cervantes' routine, according to neighbors in the strip center, to go to the bank, usually before work. He owns Los Chefs Hermanos catering. A business profile says it's been in Houston for 11 years, and provides everything from business catering, to food and decoration for weddings, birthday events, and banquets.

A 9mm bullet casing was found on the sidewalk not far from the business's front door. Cervantes was shot in the shoulder, but received help even before an ambulance arrived. A health care clinic is next door.

"I heard a gunshot, and made patients get in the back," said Ashley Jones, who knows Cervantes. "He was on the sidewalk yelling help me."

A physician's assistant tended to him until paramedics were on scene.

The gunman was said to be wearing a red hoodie. There was also a driver waiting in the getaway car, which was described as a silver, or blue gray Nissan sedan, perhaps an older model. Businesses up and down the center have security cameras, as does the property management company. That video has not yet been made public.

It's not known how much money, if any, the robber took. Witnesses said the getaway car parked close to Cervantes' truck, and that he may have been followed from the bank he visits several days a week, before going to work.

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