Owner of Chopsticks & Sushi now in jail on first-degree murder charges

Yan de Yang, the owner of Chopsticks & sushi at 1630 Welton Street, is now behind bars -- not the burners.He's being held without bail on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Lloyd Running Bear II, who was slain at the restaurant last Thursday. According...

By Patricia Calhoun

October 27, 2009

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Yan de Yang, the owner of Chopsticks & sushi at 1630 Welton Street, is now behind bars -- not the burners.

He's being held without bail on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Lloyd Running Bear II, who was slain at the restaurant last Thursday.

According to an affidavit, Yang says he shot Running Bear in self-defense, after getting in a fight with him and another man. "He felt as if they would kill him, and he got his gun out of his pocket and shot the male choking him," investigators say Yang told them.

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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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