Slaying Suspect Faces New Robbery Charge

The reputed Los Angeles street gang member charged in August with robbing and murdering a Hawthorne liquor store owner who had just withdrawn $80,000 from the bank has been charged with attacking another man outside the same bank just a day earlier.

Authorities filed kidnaping, assault and robbery charges Sept. 27 against Omar (Chico) Dent III for the Aug. 18 crime that allegedly began outside the California 1st Bank at 15120 Hawthorne Blvd. in Lawndale.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Martin said the victim, whom he described only as a Vietnamese man, was pushed inside his own car and driven to the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills, by Dent, who then hit the victim with a pistol and robbed him of $175.

The victim later picked Dent’s picture from mug shots shown him by police, Martin said. The man will be asked to reaffirm that identification next week at a lineup.

Dent, 25, was charged in August and is being held without bail in the Aug. 19 murder of liquor store owner Byung Jin Kim. In that case, authorities charged that Dent shot Kim in the face as the merchant got into his van outside the bank. Police said Dent then pushed Kim inside the van and drove off with the mortally wounded businessman and the $80,000.

Dent stopped the van a few blocks away and, as he ran off, shot another man, police said.

He is charged with murder, robbery, kidnaping for robbery, attempted murder and attempted robbery in the Aug. 19 case.

The cases have been combined for a preliminary hearing Jan. 13 in South Bay Municipal Court.