LAKE FOREST : Beating of Man, Son Termed Hate Crime

At least seven men are being sought for what the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is calling a racially motivated beating of a Korean liquor store owner and his son.

The two beating victims escaped the Friday evening assault at On the Rocks Liquor, 21991 El Toro Road, with deep bruises and cuts on their bodies.

Junghun Park, 22, who was beaten and cut with liquor bottles, was treated at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center and released. His father, Ben Park, was given first aid at the scene by paramedics.

Sheriff’s deputies said the attackers could face hate-crime charges because they yelled for their victims to “go back to the country you came from,” said Lt. Robert Nesmith.

The incident began around 9:30 p.m. with an argument between Junghun Park and a white male customer over a single pack of cigarettes. The young man swore he would get revenge, then returned half an hour later with several friends, including at least two black men, two or three Latino males and a Caucasian man, the younger Park said in a telephone interview Monday.

“Three of them jumped on me, then started hitting me with their fists and hitting me with liquor bottles from our shelves,” said Park, a Saddleback College student. “I just remember thinking that I was going to die.”

Standing near the front counter of his liquor store on Monday, Ben Park rolled up the legs of his shorts to show several large bruises on his upper thighs. The rest of his legs were covered with scratches and small cuts.

“My son tried to call 911, but three of them grabbed him and hit him hard,” said the elder Park, who has owned the liquor store for more than three years. “The rest of them came at me and were hitting and kicking me.”

But fear of future attacks will not make the family sell the liquor store, said Ben Park: “No, we will not move from here.”

Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department at (714) 249-5200.