Son Mourns a ‘Brave Soldier’ : Shooting: Man says his father survived the killing fields of Cambodia only to die in a senseless robbery attempt in his Santa Ana apartment.

Sokreoun Phauk held a photo of his father and wept.

“My father was a brave soldier,” Phauk, 27, said Tuesday. “He went through so much. Now he’s dead. He’s dead. He died trying to protect his children.”

Y Phauk, 57, a former anti-communist soldier from Cambodia, was gunned down Monday night inside his East Bishop Street apartment.

Sokreoun Phauk, the oldest son, said his father had survived the killing fields of Cambodia only to die in a senseless attempted robbery. His mother, Sengly, 47, was critically wounded in the shooting.

The father, who was disabled from war injuries, resisted the gunmen because he was afraid they would hurt his three youngest children--a 7-year-old boy and two girls ages 8 and 10, said Sokreoun Phauk.

He said four young Cambodian men forced their way into the Phauks’ apartment shortly before 8:30 p.m. and tried to rob his father, mother and a guest. He said the three youngest of his five brothers and sisters were also in the apartment at the time. The intruders taped the children’s mouths to keep them from yelling.

“I was outside when it happened,” Sokreoun Phauk said.

An older sister, 29, and a brother, 18, were also not home when the men forced their way inside, said Sokreoun Phauk. He said this is what he learned of the incident:

“My father, mother and my father’s friend were (in the apartment) watching TV. The young children were also watching, sitting on the floor.

“These men were outside. They were all Cambodians. They pushed open the door. They said: ‘Shut up. Don’t run.’ They put tape on the mouths of my brothers and sisters. My father’s friend was also sitting on the floor, with my brothers and sisters. My father was forced to sit on bed. My mother was in a chair beside him.

“My father jumped up and told the men they were not going to hurt his children. The men then shot him. They shot and shot. Too many shots. My mother went to help him. Then they shot her three times.”

The three young children and adult guest looked on in horror, he said. Then the gunmen fled into the dark streets of eastern Santa Ana. Police said Tuesday they had few clues.

The shooting occurred in a small downstairs unit at an aging apartment complex on East Bishop Street. Social workers asked that the address not be made public, saying that the neighbors fear possible retaliation.

On Tuesday morning, residents of the apartment complex, almost all of whom are immigrants from war-torn Cambodia, stood in grief and shock outside the scene of the shooting. They whispered to each other. They sadly looked into the Phauks’ apartment.

Bullet holes showed on the walls of the entrance to the apartment. Bloodstains crisscrossed the floor where Y Phauk died and his wife lay wounded beside him.

A social worker, Mary Ann Salamida of the Neighborhood Service Center, took the three younger Phauk children to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana to visit their mother. “They need to see her and know she is still alive,” Salamida said.

The immigrant Cambodians who live in the complex have converted one apartment into a Buddhist temple. The apartment-temple is about 100 yards from the Phauks’ unit. Buddhist priests sorrowfully said prayers inside the temple for Y Phauk.

Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said robbery was the apparent motive in the shooting.

Such home invasions have become common in areas where there is a large Asian population and where criminals tend to prey on people from their native country or culture, Helton said.

“Some families keep currency and other valuables, such as jewelry, in their houses, and that seems to be the target,” Helton said. He added that in this instance, however, the men fled empty-handed.

Helton said Phauk’s death was the 16th homicide in Santa Ana this year. The city last year had an all-time record of 59 murders.

Sokreoun Phauk said the gunmen had at one point attempted to yank a gold chain from his father’s neck. But nothing was taken during the home invasion, he said.

The aftermath, however, left the small apartment in shambles. The gunshots loosened wall panel boards, which then fell to the floor. Furniture was overturned.

Sokreoun Phauk sat on the edge of a bed and looked at the rubble. On the walls, there were smiling photos of his father, mother and other family members.

“We came here to escape trouble,” he said. “Back in Cambodia, there is so much trouble. My father was a soldier there. We all went to Thailand in 1979 after (Communist) Vietnam invaded Cambodia. Then we came to the United States in 1983.

“My father had been a brave soldier. He had escaped so much. Once he told me that he was strong and could survive. But now he is dead. He is dead.”