By Katherine Hafner 

Jan 27, 2017

Jiansheng Chen, 60, was shot by a security guard while seated in his minivan, parked at the River Walk clubhouse, as shown Jan. 27.

The entrance to the River Walk clubhouse parking lot, photographed Friday morning Jan. 27, 2017.

CHESAPEAKE

The Chen family planned to gather Friday night to celebrate the start of the Chinese New Year.

Instead, they are struggling for answers and grappling with the shooting death of 60-year-old Jiansheng Chen.

Chen died Thursday night after he was shot half a mile from his home in the River Walk neighborhood, according to police.

Police said he was seated in his minivan in the River Walk clubhouse parking lot when a security guard confronted him. They argued, and police said the security guard fired . Officers found him in the 700 block of River Walk Parkway off Great Bridge Boulevard just after 11 p.m., following calls from the security guard and people nearby who heard gunfire.

Bullets had been shot through various windows of the van, police spokeswoman Kelly Elliott said in an email.

No one has been charged because the department is investigating whether the shooting was justified, she wrote.

Chen, a former chef at Chinese restaurants in New York, spoke very little English, said Greg Sandler, a Virginia Beach lawyer who is helping the family find details about Chen’s death.

The family speaks Mandarin, and the language barrier “is making it very hard for them to understand the process,” said Sandler.

“They were obviously devastated,” he said.

Chen leaves behind a wife, two adult children, grandchildren and siblings, Sandler said. His brother, Jian Chen, owns Royal China on Great Bridge Boulevard and his daughter owns a Chinese restaurant in Norfolk. His parents live in China.

Sandler said Jiansheng Chen’s wife still lives in New York and he would travel up there often.

Sandler said the Chens are struggling to understand how such an incident unfolded. The 60-year-old did not own a gun, the family told Sandler.

Billy Rudolph, a spokesman for the River Walk Community Association, said since 2010 the group has contracted with a security company to hire unarmed guards.

The association’s board said in a statement the contract is for “unarmed roving patrol services for the common areas of the community,” not including the clubhouse where Chen was shot.

“We are fully cooperating with authorities investigating the incident that took place just outside association property,” the statement said.

A reporter’s phone call to the security company was not returned Friday.

Sandler said the Chens’ entire extended family had been planning to gather in Chesapeake to celebrate the holiday.

“That’s never going to happen again, I suppose,” he said.