Police Besiege Restaurant, Arrest 6 Viet Theft Suspects

Six members of a Vietnamese youth gang who police said forced their way into a Van Nuys home Monday and threatened to kill man who could identify them as armed robbers were arrested during a five-hour standoff with authorities in Chatsworth.

Police said the suspects were arrested on suspicion of robbery but could face other charges after the police siege of a sushi restaurant, which forced the evacuation of small neighboring businesses in a shopping plaza and the closing of Devonshire Street at Independence Avenue.

Four of the suspects surrendered to police about 3 p.m., shortly after patrol officers followed them to the Sasa Sushi restaurant and surrounded the building. The two remaining suspects were found inside the restaurant at 7:30 p.m. after police SWAT team members uncorked tear gas inside and then entered a rear door. The two were found in a crawl space between a drop ceiling and the floor above.

“The suspects are members of a Vietnamese gang that has been responsible for five or six armed robberies,” Lt. Harvie Eubank said.

Names Not Released

The names of the six men arrested were not released by police. The robberies, police said, occurred in the San Fernando Valley and areas of downtown Los Angeles and are part of a wave of Vietnamese gang-related crimes directed primarily against Asians. Last week, police warned the Valley’s Vietnamese residents not to open their doors to strangers.

Monday’s incident began in Van Nuys when the six suspects, members of a gang called Viet Ching, forced their way into the home of a Laotian man who could identify them as the suspects in the recent robbery of his uncle’s home, said Officer K. Phan, of the Police Department’s Asian Task Force. Police declined to name the witness.

“They pulled up their shirts to show they had guns in their waistbands and told him not to contact the police or they would kill him,” Phan said. “They scared him pretty bad.”

However, after the group left the home, the victim called the Asian Task Force and provided descriptions of the suspects and their car, a blue Nissan Maxima. Eubank said police already had information that a robbery of a home had been planned by a Vietnamese gang for Monday afternoon in a neighborhood near Devonshire Street and DeSoto Avenue.

Patrol officers were stationed in that area when the car was spotted about 2 p.m. and followed to the nearby sushi restaurant where six men got out and went in to eat, Eubank said. After police surrounded the two-story plaza that houses the restaurant, an officer called the restaurant and ordered it evacuated.

Fourteen customers and employees and four of the suspects came out. The suspects were arrested without incident, but no weapons were found. Meanwhile, police called the SWAT team, and the standoff ensued during which the two remaining suspects did not acknowledge demands for their surrender or make contact with police.

As the sun set, tear gas was exploded inside the restaurant. When that failed to bring the suspects out, a team of heavily armed officers with gas masks went in and searched until the two remaining suspects, both unarmed, were found.