By Michelle Woo Photograph by Eric Sueyoshi
Motorists honked at the scene in front of Seven Gold Liquor store, an unlikely place for a remembrance, as they sped past on the busy thoroughfare. Store customers looked perplexed as they tried to figure out what was happening.
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Still, on a chilly evening in early January, nearly 150 people gathered by the wooden awning of the strip mall liquor store in La Habra, Calif. Spilling into the parking lot, faces damp with tears, they were there to bid goodbye to Michael Sungman Cho, a 25-year-old UCLA graduate who was shot to death by police officers at the same location, five days earlier during an encounter on New Year’s Eve.
In the hours and days following the shooting, police department officials elicited bereaved and aggravated responses from family members and friends who sought an explanation for Cho’s death. Detailed information regarding the shooting was slow in coming, said La Habra Police Chief Dennis Kies, as it was withheld from the public until witness interviews could be completed.
After four days, Kies convened a public forum in Garden Grove at the offices of the Korean American Federation of Orange County to address questions and concerns raised by family, friends, news media and interested Korean American community members.
Kies provided a description of what transpired at the shooting, and answered questions regarding the department’s investigation into circumstances surrounding the fateful afternoon. While the police narrative left room for further questions, the following explanation, based on witness accounts and reports filed by the officers involved in the shooting, was related by Kies.
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At about 1 p.m. on Dec. 31, La Habra Police Department dispatch received a 911 call regarding multiple acts of car vandalism occurring along Walnut Street near Whittier Boulevard. The unidentified tipster said he witnessed “an adult Asian male kicking car doors, windows and bumpers, as well as ripping windshield wiper blades off of vehicles,” Kies said. The caller also provided a physical description of the subject and his clothing. Patrol officers responded to the area, but found no one.
The same tipster called again about an hour later, saying the same person responsible for the vandalism was now at the intersection of Walnut Street and Whittier Boulevard, carrying a tire iron.
The first officer arrived at the intersection, and met the caller who proceeded to point out the suspect, later identified as Michael Cho. He was standing outside of the Seven Gold Liquor Store at 545 W. Whittier Blvd.
The officer parked his car, drew his gun and approached Cho on foot, calling out to him to drop the tire iron. Cho did not heed the command, and appeared agitated, according to Kies. A second officer arrived, and also ordered Cho to drop the tire iron. He then turned and walked, first, toward the liquor store entrance, then redirected toward Whittier Boulevard.
On foot, one of the officers circled around the squad cars and the driveway to try and intercept Cho before he reached the street. At that point, according to Kies, Cho “advanced toward the officer, who was a few feet away, and raised the tire iron above his head in a manner which looked as if he was going to strike.”
The officer closest in pursuit fired at Cho, with the second officer joining in immediately. Paramedics pronounced Cho dead at the scene.
Responding to questions at the forum, Kies said that Cho was not struck by rounds from the back. The police chief did not however disclose how many times he was struck or how many rounds were fired. The identities of the officers involved have not been released, and they have been placed on administrative leave with pay while the shooting is investigated, Kies said.
As is procedure in officer use of deadly force cases, the shooting is under investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Kies said the investigation could take months before findings are released.
The day after the public forum, the gathering at the candlelight vigil where the young man was killed included some who questioned the police account, saying the actions attributed to Cho did not fit his character. Several friends called for a fair and thorough investigation. Others expressed indignation over what they termed excessive force.
Taped to Seven Gold’s cinderblock facewall were images of the slain art student, a collage of candid photos evoking memories and offering friends and strangers glimpses into his life. He was an art major who graduated from UCLA in 2005. More recently he studied traditional pottery making in Korea, and had plans to continue his pursuit of art in a graduate school program. He set his sights on Yale University. He recently celebrated his 25th birthday on Dec. 20. He played the guitar. He loved animals.
Some cited physical traits that might have kept Cho from being seen as a threat. Friends describe him as being 5 feet 6 inches, 140 pounds, and he walked with a pronounced limp, the result of a bicycle accident when he was in middle school. Cho’s older brother, Marc, 27, mentioned that he also had a benign tumor in his spine that caused him discomfort. Marc Cho said that he did not think his brother was taking any sort of medication.
Cho lived with his parents in La Habra, within walking distance from the site of the shooting. His father, Sungman, works for a contracting company, and his mother, Hong-Lan, is a nurse.
The co-owner of Seven Gold Liquor, who asked to be identified as “Kim,” was not at the store when the shooting occurred, but was familiar with Cho, saying he would come in regularly to buy cigarettes. Kim described Cho as usually quiet, but polite.
Friends and family members knelt on the pavement and gazed at the makeshift memorial. As minutes passed, the display of flowers spread, clusters of candles expanded, and a poster board grew crowded with handwritten notes. “How did this happen? Why did this happen?” a message read. Other participants voiced their bewilderment.
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“This just doesn’t make sense to me,” said Miguel Reyes, 24, a friend of Cho’s since middle school. “He had such love for his fellow neighbor. He was the realest dude that I ever came across.
“The last time I talked to him, he was getting together his portfolio. He said he was working on his ‘masterpiece.’ No one knows what that was going to be, but he had a real vision.”
***
A parking lot surveillance video from the day of the shooting was obtained from the strip mall by The Korea Times and broadcast on LA 18 KTAN’s Korean news program.
Footage recorded by a camera mounted above the liquor store captures a scene that spans about 20 seconds immediately prior to the shooting. The soundless footage shows Cho, dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans, entering the frame by slowly pacing toward a parked squad car. Two officers level guns at him.
Cho holds what appears to be a cigarette in his right hand and a tire iron in his left. While standing on the pavement about a car length from the officers, Cho takes a drag from the cigarette, then turns and walks away from the officers and the squad car.
Moving out of the frame, he steps onto the sidewalk, heading toward the street. One officer quickly follows. The subsequent confrontation and gunfire take place beyond the view of the surveillance camera.
Farooq Mohammad, owner of a neighboring Green Burrito restaurant, was helping a customer at the drive-through when he heard an estimated four or five gunshots. “I thought maybe it was fireworks,” said Mohammad, who attended the vigil.
Jennifer Park, 24, who dated Cho for seven years, created a Facebook group called “Stop Police Brutality – Remember Michael Cho,” which currently has more than 1,600 members. Park says the group aims to protest the actions of the La Habra Police Department and explore the use of non-lethal weapons by police. Group members have helped rally community support through forums with lawyers, police department officials and Asian American grassroots organizations.
Richard Choi Bertsch, chairman of the Orange County Korean American Coalition, encouraged Cho’s family and friends to initiate a petition drive to lobby for an independent investigation by federal authorities if the Orange County prosecutor’s office finds the police acted accordingly.
Bertsch said that in the past, when local investigations condoned similar police-involved shootings, a federal unit has been able to secure criminal civil rights violation convictions.
“This is a tragic, senseless loss,” Bertsch said at the vigil. “We need a resolution. At the end of the day, we need to seek truth and justice.”
Internal police commissions are familiar with criticism for lacking accountability or for bias favoring officers, as the vast majority of cases reviewed find that officers act within the department’s standards of conduct or in accordance with training. (Police department policies on drawing firearms state that an officer’s decision to shoot must be to protect themselves or others from serious bodily injury or death.) The incident was one of three lethal, officer-involved shootings in eight days in Orange County.
Park, Reyes and others said they will seek a federal investigation. “There’s so much we don’t know,” Reyes said. “Police officers would generally know how many shots were fired. Why don’t they know? Little facts like that are really skewed.”
“Now, our friend is dead and it’s obvious that we’re going to ask questions.”
In a phone interview after the memorial, Dr. Paul Kim, a former LAPD police commander, said investigators must make sure that the use of firearms was the last possible option in the Cho case. As a member of Los Angeles’ police use-of-force board, he has reviewed more than 1,000 cases to determine whether officers conducted themselves properly.
Kim said most officers are equipped with less lethal weapons such as bean bag guns, tasers or batons, but they do not always have those particular tools readily at hand.
Kim said that while no conclusions can yet be made, in the surveillance video, the officers were standing in a “position of safety.”
“Prior to the shooting, it does not appear that [Cho] was threatening anybody,” Kim said. “Usually, someone holding a cigarette is not about to attack someone. This happened at 2 p.m. so there were no problems with visibility.”
Kim added that in such incidents, police are always watching the suspect’s hands. “Don’t give them a reason to suspect that you are armed,” he warned.
The incident has sparked online debates surrounding the police’s use of deadly force.
On an Orange County Register comment board, a woman who described herself as a Korean American in law enforcement wrote about her support for the officers.
“Let me tell you, if someone were charging at me with a tire iron at a distance of 5 feet, I would shoot with absolutely no hesitation in my mind whatsoever. This person is threatening me with deadly force and I’m going to do the same. And no, I’m not going to fight a fair fight and engage him with my baton or something like that.
“As a police officer, you meet deadly force with deadly force and give yourself the greatest advantage possible to win the fight and go home to your family safely.”
As for why Cho carried a tire iron, friends say the reasons could have been many. His house was two blocks away, so he might have been working with the tool when he decided to walk to the liquor store, some suggested. Jennifer Park also said her friend had a tendency to pick up random things he saw on the street for later use in his artwork.
Artnet magazine reported the tragic circumstances surrounding the death also have an “uncanny connection to contemporary art.” Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist gained early attention with her 1997 video, “Ever Is Over All,” which features a young woman breaking windows of parked cars with a flower-shaped tire iron. Rist was a visiting professor at UCLA from 2002 to 2003.
***
At the vigil, attendees took turns sharing memories of Cho. Some people in the crowd nodded or embraced each other.
“Michael had the most caring heart, the most compassionate heart,” said Hong-Lan Cho, standing with her husband. “His heart was with people who needed a hand.”
Mrs. Cho later recounted to her son’s friends how he taught art to disabled students. It was something that made him happy, she said.
With his distinctive ponytail and glasses, Cho was seen as a philosophical guy who always had his head in books. He attended Walnut High School, then UCLA, and aspired to attend graduate school. His friends remembered him as someone who tried to help people see the beauty in things, whether it was through art, music or conversation.
“Mike made you realize that life is precious,” said Jeanne Hwang, 24, one of Cho’s childhood friends. “He knew that life wasn’t about material things. I just loved learning about his views.”
Marc Cho said that his brother was a great listener: “He was always the guy you went to for advice. He never judged you, no matter who you were.”
Miguel Reyes said he had just seen Cho two days before the shooting at a belated Christmas party. About 20 of Cho’s closest friends were there.
“He was talking about how great it was that everybody was able to be there,” Reyes said. “The way I saw him smile was probably the happiest I had seen him in a long time.”
Marc Cho said his brother was simply looking forward to the new year.
After the vigil, the Chos invited relatives and close friends to their home. “I wish Michael was here,” Mrs. Cho told a small group of attendees as she looked out at the crowd.
One young woman gave a comforting smile, and replied, “We all do.”
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