Home Invaders Strike Again in Yorba Linda

Outraged city officials Thursday denounced a brutal attack by suspected Asian gang members and said they intend to stamp out gang activity before it takes root in this quiet, wealthy suburb.

“We don’t want gangs in this city,” Mayor William E. (Gene) Wisner said Thursday. “ . . . It’s time to put this gang stuff to a screeching halt.”

In what police have dubbed a “home invasion” robbery, three armed youths broke into the home of Yorba Linda physician James Lin on Wednesday. They tied up Lin’s 14-year old daughter, and bound and pistol-whipped his wife before making off with an undetermined amount of cash, jewelry and other personal belongings, Brea Police Lt. William Lentini said.

The suspects were described as Vietnamese males in their late teens or early 20s, all wearing identical white dress shirts and brown pants, Lentini said. The attack came eight weeks after masked Asian youths attacked and terrorized another Yorba Linda family.

More than 200 home invasion robberies have been reported in California since 1988, and some law enforcement officials believe the attacks are becoming more violent. The invaders often bind, gag, beat or threaten to kill their victims, so terrorizing them that authorities believe many such incidents go unreported.

The stylized attacks are often carefully planned and executed. Both the perpetrators and the victims are nearly always of Asian heritage.

In Westminster and Garden Grove, where Orange County’s Asian gang activity has been concentrated, six home invasions have been reported since August, police said. Several recent attacks have also been reported across Los Angeles County, said Westminster Police Detective Marcus Frank, who monitors Asian gang activity.

“The gangs draw throughout Southern California, in both affluent and non-affluent areas,” Frank said.

After the Sept. 15 attack, Yorba Linda Mayor Wisner had asked the council to approve a $20,000 reward for information leading to arrests. City staff members recommended against such a move, however, saying that it would set an inappropriate precedent. But on Thursday, after learning of the second attack, Wisner and other council members said they would reconsider offering the $20,000 reward.

“It’s extremely frustrating for me personally, because it seems it can happen to anybody,” said Councilman Irwin M. Fried, adding that he was meeting with city and police administrators to discuss the issue.

Lentini said that at 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, three men knocked on the door of Lin’s Deodar Drive home, and when Gale Lin, 47, answered, they asked her if they could use the telephone.

“They (Lin and her daughter) did not give permission for the suspects to enter until one of them convinced Mrs. Lin that they were friends of the older daughter,” Lentini said.

The older daughter was away at college at the time, he explained.

Once inside, the three men drew pistols, Lentini said, and bound the hands and feet of the mother and daughter.

They then began tearing up the inside of the house, overturning furniture and rummaging through drawers in search of jewels and other personal belongings, James Lin said.

“They even tore the mattress and springs up,” said Lin, 50, who has a private practice in Brea. After searching the home, the suspects then beat Gale Lin in the face with their pistols and carried the daughter into a back bathroom.

Police were called to the scene when the daughter managed to free herself and climb out a window. The suspects fled after one of them spotted the daughter running from the back yard toward a neighbor’s house.

“I’m very upset,” James Lin said on Thursday. “We live in a nice, quiet neighborhood. Nothing happens here.”

On Sept. 15, a band of Asian teen-agers stormed into a home, tying up five members of a Chinese family and pistol-whipping the mother before fleeing with jewelry. Suspects in that attack were never identified, police said.

“The kind of M.O. that was used is certainly consistent with activities of certain Asian gangs,” Brea Police Chief Don Forkus said. “There are certainly some strong similarities, he added.

Forkus said that both attacks seem to have been well planned and that the attackers knew something about each family. The only marked difference is that the suspects wore masks in the first crime.

“They were specifically targeted for the crime,” Forkus said, suggesting that the attackers may have befriended the older daughter some time earlier, perhaps to make it easier to get into the house.

“This was not a crime of happenstance,” Forkus said. “They deliberately sought out people.”

Even before they learned of the second attack, City Council members Wednesday night had authorized a “We Tip” hot-line reward of $1,000 for information about the September attack. Citizens are asked to call (800) 472-7766.

City and police officials have said that some Asian-Americans, who may fear reprisals, have been reluctant to cooperate with police investigating the robberies.