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Couple Killed in Attack at Asian Restaurant

Daughter helping to identify suspect

By Associated Press

The daughter of a couple killed in the armed robbery of their Asian restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, is helping law officers to identify a suspect in the attack.

Shao Xiong He, 34, died April 24 at University Hospital from stab wounds he received in the robbery the day before, which left his wife, 33-year-old May Lin He, dead at the scene.

The couple’s 6-year-old daughter said the suspect, who had ordered take-out at the Asia Garden Restaurant, was a repeat customer there. The girl offered to help police after she and a younger brother saw the man stab their parents to death, relatives said.

“She’s very smart, very determined,” Bill Lim, Monica He’s cousin, told the San Antonio Express-News last week.

Lim said the customer had been a very polite man who earlier had picked up food to go.

“He’d been real nice before,” said Lim, adding that the little girl described the man’s demeanor as being far different on the afternoon of April 23, when he entered the restaurant while the couple prepared for evening customers.

The owners were alone in the restaurant, except for their young daughter and 5-month-old son, Eric. They were confronted by the customer, who told the couple, “I want all your money.” But the restaurant owners struggled with the suspect. Shao He was cut in the arms and stabbed, along with his wife, and left bleeding on the floor.

“Apparently, before he [the father] dropped to the floor, he told her [the 6-year-old girl] to call for help,” Lim said.

The daughter emerged from the restaurant’s front door in a small strip mall and screamed for help.

Alex De Hoyas, the service manager at Gemini Automotive in the center, responded and dialed 911.

“I think the mother was still alive when I first got there,” De Hoyas said, adding that he heard her gasp a couple of times. Her husband was holding his hand over a wound to the center of his chest.

Shao He underwent several hours of surgery before he died at the hospital.