Family gets settlement after son’s murder at Fort Myers apartment complex

LEE COUNTY, Fla.- In 2012, a man was shot and killed while delivering Chinese food to a home at the Westchase Apartment complex in Fort Myers.

While no one is in jail for the crime, the family is now getting a big payout from the apartment complex.

The family’s attorney says the money is from a civil settlement with the owners of the apartment complex where their son, 23-year-old Zhi Wei Huang was killed, because he says the owners failed to provide the proper security needed to prevent this from happening.

Huang was gunned down in June 2012 after delivering food from his family’s restaurant, Tung Hing, to the Westchase Apartment complex in Fort Myers. Now, his family received a $3.25 million settlement.

Christopher Marlowe, the family’s attorney, says “sometimes people say ‘well the money won’t bring back the deceased child’ and that’s true, it won’t. But, what it did do is it shined a light, I think a very important light on a very easy start to finding a fix for this problem, which is studying a problem which nobody studies until we do something like this.”

Fort Myers police arrested two teens for shooting and killing Huang, but a grand jury declined to indict either of them for the murder because there was a lack of evidence.

“What happened to them is the most awful nightmare imaginable and they’re just glad that it’s over but unfortunately there will never be closure on the criminal side unless someone else committed this crime,” said Marlowe.

He says while the family received this settlement, they will never have closure.

“They’re very pleased that the process is complete as it could possibly be for them in this country, they’re happy that it’s finished.”

He hopes this settlement sends a message to the apartment complex owners that it’s time to get better security.