A would be robber was killed by a Chinese businessman over the weekend. We broke the news of the shooting on Thursday Evening when three men attempted to rob Faber’s Snack Shop on Faber’s Road. What the robbers didn’t know was that the storeowner was armed with a licensed 9-millimeter gun. And so when they pulled out their guns, he pulled out his and there was a deadly conclusion to that exchange. Keith Swift has the story.
Alice Flowers, Mother of Deceased
“I never know it would come to my turn. I always see people crying on TV and I never knew it would be my turn.”
But tonight Alice Flowers is that grieving mother. Her son Keon “Piggy” Villanueva was killed during a robbery attempt on Friday evening at Faber’s Snack Shop on Faber’s Road. The owners here at Faber’s Snack Shop refused to talk to us because they say they’ve told the police everything. And what they told police is that shortly after 6:30, on Friday night – three men entered the store – all had on masks and two of them were armed with guns. Police say the men stormed in and opened fire. 77-year-old Rudolph Hulse was inside Faber’s Snack Shop at the time of the robbery.
Rudolph Hulse, Witness
“I was in the snack shop and I went and got a stout and coming out to open the stout, I looked and I saw three men coming in and shooting from they got at the door. I thought the gun were play guns because I thought it was pop-shots but then the man said for everyone to lay down or you will be dead. So I said this was a serious thing and I went for the door but someone told me to duck and the same time I ducked, they started to shoot again and when I looked, the bullets stopped and I never did went in again. I heard the Chinese shot one of them. I was frightened. The gun popped over my head. The man told me to duck.”
40-year-old Chinese businessman Sheng Lin Li fired one shot from his licensed 9 millimeter gun. It later jammed but the one bullet fired hit Keon Villanueva in his forehead and killed him. His mom Alice Flowers, who works at the KHMH, had just left work when she got the shocking news.
Alice Flowers,
“A phone call come and they told me to come to the hospital because Piggy was dead. I still didn’t believe and I when I reached at the hospital the nurse in charge came to me and I told her that I am there and when I got into the emergency room, I looked in the trauma room and I saw my son on the bed.”
Keon was released from jail in December of last year. Flowers says her son did try to change his life. She believes that on Thursday friends lured him into committing the robbery and that’s where she says the blame lies.
Alice Flowers,
“My son was sleeping and they came to wake my son. They knocked on the door and called him and from what I understand a car came out and picked him up along with some young man who came and wake him up. I was at work. Whosoever set it up or whatever, they know that that Chinese man had a gun. They knew it so I don’t know what went down, what happened or what but the one who came and woke him, that will come back to him too because he knew that he asleep and he should have walked back out of the yard and went about his business and left my son in there. He should have left him in there to sleep and that is what hurts me.”
Keith Swift,
You’re saying your son didn’t know what he was getting into?
Alice Flowers
“I don’t know, I don’t know what to say.”
And while Alice Flowers is in grief – Port Loyola area representative Boots Martinez is concerned. He was near the shop at the time of the shooting and is outraged at the callousness of the crime.
Hon. Anthony “Boots” Martinez, Area Rep.
“Those intentional kind of stuff where people just pull up in a shop where a shop is crowded and you have people buying and just opening fire amongst the public, that’s a terrible road for disaster. It is really concerning to me as the Area Representative, I am passionate about this issue, having people shooting in a public place. That is terrible.”
A terrible tragedy as while a mother grieves on Banak Street at Faber’s Snack Shop business is far from usual as the grill door which used to stay open is now closed.
Deputy Commander of Eastern Division Chester Williams told us this evening that case file has been sent to the DPP’s office to determine if the store owner – 40 year old Sheng Lin Li - will be charged for the shooting. Crime scene personnel recovered 9 expended shells from the scene, 2 nine-millimeter slugs, and a 38 revolver which police believe was the weapon Keon Villanueva was carrying.
