Gang Linked to Slayings at Cemetery

Two men fatally shot this week beside a grave at a cemetery were identified Friday as members of a Mafia-type gang who were paying respects to their slain leader when they were ambushed by other gang members, authorities said.

Cuong Duc Phung, 26, and Thinh Xuan Nguyen, 41, of San Francisco belonged to the Hung Pho ring, described by authorities as a gang that has committed robbery, extortion and other crimes throughout the state.

They were shot to death Wednesday afternoon at the graves of brothers Hung Quoc Duong, 29, and Dung Quoc Duong, 28.

The elder Duong was reportedly the leader of the Hung Pho gang and was killed a year ago in a gangland-style murder, Anaheim Police Sgt. Chet Barry said. His brother was slain six months earlier at an Oakland restaurant.

After the shooting at the brothers’ graves, which occurred about 4:50 p.m. Wednesday, two men and a woman were seen running away. No suspects have been located, Barry said, nor has the handgun used in the killings been found.

“We don’t know whether (the killings were) about internal problems (in the Hung Pho gang) or gang rivalry,” Barry said.

Anaheim investigators are working on the case with the San Francisco Police Department.

The Hung Pho ring, also known as Red Fire, has been in existence since the early 1980s and has been linked to a wide range of crimes, including illegal gambling, loan sharking, extortion and armed robbery, San Francisco Police Sgt. Dan Foley said.

The gang was named Hung Pho because Hung Quoc Duong’s family either owns a chain of pho , or noodle shops, in California, or had owned such shops in Vietnam, authorities said.

Duong was kidnaped in San Francisco on March 17, 1991, and his body was found several days later in Oakland, Foley said. His brother, Dung Quoc Duong, was slain Sept. 16, 1990, at the Sun Hong Kong restaurant in Oakland. Both murders are unsolved, authorities said.

Their mother, Nhung Le Duong, breaking down in tears during a phone interview Thursday, said that Phung and Nguyen had paid her a brief courtesy call before going to her sons’ graves.

She said that the two men had been friends of her sons but that she does not know if her sons or the two visitors were gang members.

A Melrose Abbey cemetery employee, who did not want to be identified, said that an hour before the double shooting, a black BMW had circled the cemetery. A woman came up to the employee and made small talk--as if trying to distract him, he said.

Shots were fired minutes later. The employee said he looked up and saw one man firing at two men kneeling at the Duongs’ graves. The gunman fled with another man and the woman.