HOUSTON, TX - A shocking Tuesday night at the Electric Chair Tattoo Shop on Richmond. A little after 11 p.m., two men came into the tattoo parlor and spoke to the person at the front counter. Then at some point, one of the customers pushed his way to the back, according to HPD.
He wanted his tat and he wanted it now. So he forced his way back into a restricted area. Piercing artist Peter Piña told the guy several times to get out, but the customer waswaaaay out of it, according to one of the shop workers. So Peter and another co-worker proceeded to escort the man to the front.
"At that time, a single gunshot was heard," said Sgt. Thomas Simmons with the HPD Homicide Division.
Police say the scraggly-haired customer pulled a gun and shot 33-year-old Piña in the chest, killing him. A single father of three boys, struck down in one instant.
According to CW39 NewsFix, family members gathered Wednesday to remember Peter at his home in Rosenberg. He had been flooded out and was still waiting on trucks to come clear the trash. Now, he'll never see that happen.
"Peter was a hard-working man," says his mom, Sylvia Rocha. "He had three jobs at one time to support his three sons. My son had custody of his boys, so he was mother and father to them...and it is really hard for them right now, not being able to see their dad anymore, knowing that he's not coming back.""
"Right now, the family's gonna try to care of them," says Peter's uncle Rene Gonzalez. "Hopefully we can get through this."
Sylvia Gonzalez, godmother to Peter's kids, says recovering will be hard, "You just try to pick up the pieces and be there for each other." She adds, "There's just no other way to try to make sense of it all. You leave it in God's hands."
The tattoo shop's parking lot stood empty Wednesday. They chose not to open their doors in Peter's memory. Someone left a bouquet of flowers and a candle outside the front door-- small comfort to a family who has lost so much. "My son really died a senseless death," says mom Rocha, "over a tattoo that somebody couldn't get."
And now his family is left to pick up the pieces.
