Chopsticks & Sushi owner sentenced to six years in prison

Last Friday, Denver District Court Judge Edward Bronfin stuck former Chopsticks & Sushi owner Yan De Yang with a six-year prison sentence for the shooting death of Lloyd Running Bear, who'd come to the restaurant to collect a football gambling bet from Yang -- who shot him five times. Convicted...

By Patricia Calhoun

April 11, 2011

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Last Friday, Denver District Court Judge Edward Bronfin stuck former Chopsticks & Sushi owner Yan De Yang with a six-year prison sentence for the shooting death of Lloyd Running Bear, who'd come to the restaurant to collect a football gambling bet from Yang -- who shot him five times.

Convicted of manslaughter and third-degree assault, Yang was sentenced to six years for the manslaughter charge, with a two-year concurrent sentence for the assault conviction.

A year ago, while Yang was awaiting trial, Wild Bangkok Bar and Grill opened in the former home of Chopsticks & Sushi at 1630 Welton Street.

"We came out here a few times and just fell in love with Denver, but we also noticed that there weren't a lot of Thai restaurants downtown," Kirk Coult, who owns the place with his wife, Thai native Paula Rungsawang, told Cafe Society last year. "We looked at a number of different spaces, but being close to the foot traffic on the 16th Street Mall was key, so when this opportunity came up, we took it."

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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