Parents of 18-year-old who died a hero plead to those responsible

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - It's the middle of March and yet there's a Christmas tree in the Vasquez home.

"We put the Christmas tree back up because Javier loved it Javier loved Christmas," Carlos Vasquez said.

But there will never be another Christmas for 18-year-old Javier Flores.

"It's hard for us. He was my first baby, my first son, now I don't have him no more," Vasquez said.

What the couple has instead of their son is a box filled with his ashes.

A bear given to his parents has a recording in it of Javier's voice.

"At first when they brought it I broke down," said Javier's mother Hilda Vasquez. "But now I get to hear his voice."

Javier and Hilda were both working at a Subway at 3933 Broadway on the night of February 22, when two robbers threatened his mother, Javier intervened, and was shot to death.

The shooter is seen in surveillance video robbing another Subway just hours after the murder. The teen's heroic act made headlines.

"He said mom one day I'm going to be famous and I tell him now your famous," Hilda Vasquez said. "But I don't want him to be famous like this."

Javier's heartbroken parents are pleading for the killer and his accomplice to do the right thing.

"To turn yourself in," his mother said. "The same way you were man enough to go shoot my son in front of me be man enough to turn yourself in."

"I don't got nothing against you I don't know how you are but just please turn yourself in," Javier's father said. "It will be better for you to turn yourself in please do it."