Waterford — As he often did on Friday nights, Kyle Seidel called for takeout.

He ordered boneless spare ribs, beef teriyaki, sweet and sour chicken, and chicken lo mein with vegetables from the Lucky Inn Chinese Restaurant at 7:49 p.m.

By 8:19 p.m., he was lying in a pool of blood in the parking lot of the Waterford Family Bowl, his car still running and the driver's side door open, according to Family Bowl owner Jerry Picardi.

Waterford Police Detective Sgt. Joe DePasquale said Saturday that Seidel, 34, was shot in the chest outside the Family Bowl. He was taken to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Seidel was married with three young children and was a crane worker in Essex, said his uncle, John Seidel.

According to his Facebook page, Kyle Seidel graduated from East Lyme High School in 1996.

His uncle said Saturday that ordering takeout was a Friday night ritual for the family of five. His nephew's wife had just gotten home from work when Kyle Seidel left to pick up the food, he said.

Seidel never made it to the restaurant.

"And the next thing you know, around 9 p.m. we were called to the ER and were told that he had died. They wouldn't tell us why and they wouldn't let us see him," John Seidel, of Old Lyme, said. "We don't know what happened. He was driving by the place (Family Bowl) to get the Chinese food, and for some reason, he stopped there."

Frank Tang, manager of the Lucky Inn, in the Benny's shopping plaza on Boston Post Road — less than half a mile from Family Bowl — said Saturday night that Seidel's first name was "very familiar" and that he was a "regular."

Tang didn't think much of the fact that Seidel never came to pick up his order.

"It happens once in a while," he said. "Sometimes the customer was in a car accident or their car broke down. You never know, but I never thought that this would be the reason Kyle never came to get his food."

John Seidel said his nephew enjoyed fishing and was a "family man."

"He just bought a boat in the spring and he used it all summer," he said. "He probably fished at least six days a week, before work, after work. He just loved it. He was a good kid, a good father, good to his children. ... He would bring the fish home, and they would cook it and eat it together."

DePasquale, of Waterford police, said in a press release Saturday that the cause and manner of Seidel's death is pending the results of an autopsy being conducted at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The investigation is being conducted by the Waterford Police Department Investigative Services, the New London County State's Attorney's Office and the state police's Eastern District Major Crime Squad.

Anyone who may have observed any activity in the area of Family Bowl between 7:50 p.m. and 8:20 p.m., or may have witnessed either Seidel or his black Ford Focus traveling on Boston Post Road, is urged to call the Waterford Police Department at (860) 442-9451. All calls will be kept confidential.

j.hanckel@theday.com