Teen Shoots Stepfather in the Head During Birthday Party at Restaurant: Police

A teenager has been charged with murdering his stepfather at a birthday party in a Texas restaurant.

The shooting happened at 6 PM on Wednesday evening at Shabu Zone at the Hong Kong City Mall in Houston.

According to investigators, the family were celebrating a birthday party at the Asian buffet, which was at capacity at the time. They said the 16-year-old went to the bathroom and remerged with a semi-automatic pistol, walked back to his family's table and shot the 48-year-old once in the head. He died at the scene.

The teen immediately fled the restaurant on foot. A security guard outside flagged down a police officer who was investigating another incident in the area; he gave chase on foot, caught up with the suspect and apprehended him.

The identity of the victim, who is Asian, has not yet been revealed, and will not until all family members have been notified.

Because of his age, the suspect's name or photo have not been released either.

According to Houston PD Assistant Chief Ben Tien, there were many witnesses to the crime, but luckily no one else was hurt.

"As you can imagine, it's around dinner time, it was pretty at capacity," he told reporters outside. "Also there's a lot of people going round, this is a busy shopping strip, and a busy intersection Bellaire and Boone too."

While they have not yet confirmed a motive, Tien insisted it was not a race related crime.

"This is a family situation," he said. "But I wanted to be extremely clear that this is not a hate crime related incident; this is strictly a family related incident."

"Every time when there's a loss of life, it's always a tragedy, but you guys can imagine how sensitive this is right now involving a family member," he added.