A few hundred people from various communities in Houston, gathered on Saturday afternoon at Coles Crossing Community Center, brought flowers and candles to mourn the untimely death of Sun Maoye’s family of four. The attendees also opened their checkbooks to donate money towards a reward for tips leading to an arrest and for handling the Sun family’s financial affairs.

Sun, along with his wife Xie Mei and their two young sons, were found murdered with shots to their heads in their home in Coles Crossing subdivision in northwest Houston more than a week ago.

A family photo of Sun Maoye taken during a Christmas party in 2008 was brought to the vigil held on Saturday. Caption: May Zhou / China Daily

The vigil, organized by the Houston Chinese Alliance (HCA), was attended by Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, State Representatives Gene Wu and Allen Fletcher, two from Sun’s former employer Cameron International — vice-president Steven Geiger and Russ Stevens, as well as Chinese Consul Fan Yong, among many other community leaders.

Sun family friends approached Garcia in tears asking the sheriff’s department to do their best to solve the crime. Garcia told the media that since the case was made public, they have been receiving tips, yet there is nothing concrete so far.

"We need information on someone bragging about this, someone saying I paid someone to do this, or someone seeing a particular car," Garcia said. "But all that is in the hands of the community."

Garcia also said they are making no assumptions that the perpetrators are from the Asian community and are keeping an open mind in that regard.

Garcia said police are withholding most of the information on the crime scene so as not to jeopardize the investigation. "We have scanned every inch of the house and we are still processing all the evidence. It's a very complicated crime scene," he said.

Representative Wu called for the Asian community to break with their culture of keeping silent. "I know this tragedy hits us especially hard because this family represents what we all are. They came here to attain American dream, they studied, they got great jobs, and they built an incredible life," he said. "I know it’s in our culture to remain silent, but this is not the time for that."

According to Cameron International’s Steven Geiger, Sun was recruited right off campus and had worked at Cameron for 13 years. "We were shocked when we heard the news," Geiger said. "Sun had made many important contributions to the company and to the field of engineering in the petroleum industry."

Geiger said that Cameron is coordinating with HCA to help Sun’s family when they eventually get here. "We have also approached Crime Stoppers, and in partnership with the community, have established a significant fund, the amount of which will be announced later next week, for the capture and arrest of the perpetrator(s) of this horrific crime."

Sun’s supervisor at Cameron Russ Stevens said he was a great engineer and took pride in solving many difficulty issues. "He was reliable and tolerant, and I appreciated his cheerful attitude. He was recognized for his ability around the company. He was a great guy with a gentle demeanor. I am very sad to see him go," Stevens said.

Chinese Consul Fan Yong said that the Chinese Consulate General was helping notify Sun’s relatives back in China and would do whatever they can to help Sun’s family. In addition, the Consulate General had issued security notice in Chinese media to remind people to be vigilant about similar crimes.

Sun Yingying, a member of HCA and the primary organizer of the event, said HCA had opened a special fund called HCA Justice and Civil Rights at Southwestern National Bank. Donors could earmark money as HCA1 for use in the Crime Stopper reward or HCA 2 for use to help Sun’s family. Donations could be sent to Houston Chinese Alliance, 5905 Sovereign Drive, Houston, TX 77036 with email notification to HCATX2014@gmail.com.

Yao Gang, a Sun family friend, brought a photo of the Sun family happily posing with Santa Claus in 2008. Yao said the photo was taken at his home during a Christmas party. With teary eyes, he placed the photo among the flowers and candles attendees had placed in front of Sun’s home after the gathering.