Slaying shatters a young family

At home and at work, Xiang and Jin Huang lived their lives as a family.

They raised their three daughters in an upstairs apartment at Longshore Avenue and Tulip Street in the city's Tacony section. Downstairs, they watched over the girls as they ran Jin House, a Chinese take-out restaurant and corner store.

On Friday, the family's daily routine was interrupted when two masked men walked into the store with guns and attempted to rob the couple. One gunman shot Xiang Huang, 27, in the chest, while his wife - holding their baby daughter - stood only a few feet away. Xiang Huang was pronounced dead at the scene.

"It's sad, sad, sad," said Roberta Salley, 50, a neighbor who often babysat for the couple. "I'm going to miss him. ... I know it will haunt [his wife] forever."

Neighbors mourned Xiang Huang's death Saturday at a nighttime vigil outside the shuttered store.

Twenty-four hours earlier, the two men, described as wearing ski masks, had entered the store. Jin Huang, also 27, sitting at the counter holding the baby. Her husband was cooking at the stove, police said.

The men, both with guns, told the couple to open the register. Jin Huang yelled for them to "take the money, take the money."

As Xiang Huang went to the cash register, his wife started walking to the back of the store to shield the baby. She heard gunfire, ran, and found her husband had been shot in the chest. The gunmen ran away with no money, police said.

In interviews, Xiang Huang was described as sweet and generous, a shop owner who would let a neighborhood child have an order of cheese fries on a promise of payment.

"They were such a nice couple," said Ellen Broniszewski, 48, who lives down the street. "They came over trying to establish themselves and were trying to make it."

Immigrants from Fuzhou, the capital of the Fujian province in China, the Huangs had moved to the neighborhood and opened their store last spring, Salley said.

Jin House specialized in take-out and delivery. The store also stocked cigarettes, cereal, toilet paper, detergent, and other household items. Inside, there was a small table where the Huangs' eldest daughter - whom Salley identified as Cindy, age 5 - sometimes did her homework.

The other daughters are Mina, 3, and Anna, 8 months, Salley said.

In the short life of their business, the Huangs had been robbed at least four times, neighbors said. Once, Xiang Huang was lured out of the store after receiving a bogus delivery call, Broniszewski said.