Former Police Officer Kills Home Intruder

In hand-to-hand combat, a 17-year veteran of the South Vietnamese police force and his son turned the tables on four would-be armed robbers who broke into their Santa Ana house Sunday night. One suspect was killed and a second captured.

The suspects had pistol-whipped and stabbed Phu Van Tong, 56, and threatened to kill him and his family if he did not surrender all of his cash and jewelry, Santa Ana Police Lt. Bob Helton said.

But Tong drew a handgun from a hiding place and shot one of the suspects point-blank in the chest. The dead man’s identity was not known.

The men were described only as Vietnamese, in their late teens or early 20s and dressed in dark clothing. The captured suspect was identified as 19-year-old Dai Dahn.

Family members said they did not know the attackers.

“I shot a lot of communists (during the fall of Saigon),” Phu Van Tong said Monday, his head and hand bandaged from the ordeal. “But this is the first time I killed anybody since then.”

Phu Van Tong, who came to the United States days after the fall of Saigon and has since become a successful engineer, was not charged in the 9:16 p.m. killing, police said.

During the harrowing incident--which began when the intruders cut a screen in an open bathroom window and crawled inside--Tong and his son, Hai Tong, fought with the suspects, eventually sending two of them fleeing. Those two were still at large late Monday.

Phu Van Tong, a martial arts expert, was stabbed when Dahn allegedly pulled out a knife as he and Tong wrestled. Hai Tong narrowly missed being shot as one of the men tried to flee.

“I didn’t care what was going to happen to me,” Hai Tong said. “I just needed to protect my family.”