Man in his 40s killed in shooting at restaurant

Wichita police said a person of interest has been detained following a Monday afternoon shooting at a restaurant in southeast Wichita.

Sgt. Nikki Woodrow said police received a call of a shooting inside the Bida Saigon restaurant, 3830 E. Harry, at 1:30 p.m. After officers responded, Woodrow said, one person was pronounced dead inside the restaurant. The restaurant is in the same block of East Harry where Via Christi Hospital St. Joseph is, near Hillside.

Woodrow said by e-mail that the person killed was a man in his 40s, but gave no other details about him or the person of interest taken in for questioning. She did not disclose a motive for the violence.

The man “was suffering from a gunshot wound and was pronounced deceased inside” the building, Woodrow said. She said she did not immediately know whether the man was an employee or a customer.

“We’re not looking for anybody outstanding at this time,” she told reporters at the crime scene on Monday afternoon.

The restaurant did have customers inside at the time of the shooting, Woodrow said, but no one else was hurt.

Police are investigating the death as a homicide. On Monday afternoon, officers cordoned off the parking lot surrounding Bida Saigon and several other nearby businesses with yellow crime scene tape. Some were standing guard around the area; others were looking through and photographing a pile of what appeared to be clothing lying not far from the restaurant’s entrance.

In addition to the hospital, the area where the homicide occurred is home to a hair salon, tax service businesses, an insurance company, a dry cleaners and an automotive repair shop.

Via Christi Hospital St. Joseph was “briefly on lockdown just while the situation was being assessed,” said Roz Hutchinson, the hospital’s spokeswoman. The facility returned to normal operations quickly, though, after authorities determined there was no threat to staff members, patients or visitors.

Police seemed to be focusing their investigative efforts inside the restaurant and in the parking lot.

“There’s no indication that there was ever any real engagement on our campus,” Hutchinson said.

More information is expected during the police department’s regular new briefing on Tuesday morning.

This story was originally published November 14, 2016 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Man in his 40s killed in shooting at restaurant."