Son killed protecting mom at Subway shop where both worked

HOUSTON (WPVI) -- Houston police are looking for the men who shot and killed a high school student while protecting his own mother during an attempted Subway robbery.

The victim is identified as 18-year-old Javier Flores, described by his friends as someone who was working to help his family.

Both Flores and his mother worked at the Subway in southeast Houston.

Flores' friends are not surprised that he did everything possible to save his mother.

"He had my back. He had his friends' back, his family's back, like always. He had someone's back if you had his back," friend Helizander Rodriguez said.

Patrol officers were called to the Subway around 8 p.m. Wednesday, where they found Flores with a gunshot wound to the neck.

Police say the two suspects walked into the restaurant and pointed the gun at the victim's mother.

Flores pushed his mother aside as the two would-be robbers pulled a gun and shot him.

No customers were in the restaurant at the time of the shooting.

Rodriguez was with Flores' father as the family was rushed to Subway after the shooting.

"It looked bad. For a friend to look at him like that, it was bad," Rodriguez said.

Flores was taken to a local hospital for medical treatment, where he later died.

Endy Herrera has known Flores since middle school.

"I was heartbroken, and I feel like shedding some tears because I have been knowing him for a while and how he took a bullet for his mom, I would call him my hero for doing that," Herrera said.

Investigators are looking for two males who fled in a "tan, foreign, small car."

Another robbery occurred at a nearby Subway restaurant, and police are looking into whether the two may be related.