BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — A Bowling Green restaurant has reopened after a shooting in September killed two employees.
The alleged shooter, who also worked at Ninja Hibachi Steakhouse, opened fire on Sept. 17 inside a house on Monroe Court just after midnight, killing Zhichun Huang, 36, and Bing Luan Lin, 40.
Since then, the restaurant shut its doors, giving employees time to heal and cope with the loss of their friends and coworkers. The restaurant reopened on Saturday.
Restaurant owner Eric Lin wants people to know Ninja Hibachi is back open, something he decided was for the best.
"Super sad, I lost two of my best friends," Lin said. "If we made money, we could support my friends' family."
One of the victims was a cook and the other was the manager. Employees say the workplace has been different without them.
"They've always been my friends, so it was kind of hard to accept what happened," said Lucius Savage, one of the servers at the restaurant.
Before the shooting, Shaeyley Flores ate at Ninja Hibachi with her friends quite often.
"We all just messaged each other, she said when her group learned about the shooting. "We all were just shocked about it."
Other customers like Hannah Brooks and her grandchildren didn't know the steakhouse had been closed, or even what happened, until they came in on Tuesday.
"We're very sorry for the folks and our hearts go out to them," Brooks said.
Lin said the restaurant has experienced a decline in business since its temporary closure. He's afraid people have forgotten about the restaurant, and although he's glad to be back at work, he hopes business gets back to normal.
"It would be a shame for what happened to kill off the restaurant here," he said. "We have nice, hard-working people here. The people we lost were hard-working, fantastic people. I would like (customers) to come back and keep the spice alive."
Wang is charged with murder and felonious assault. He is due back in court Thursday morning.
Editor's note: The above story has been edited to correct an error regarding the date of the initial shooting.