KOREATOWN : Reward Offered in Search for Murderer

The City Council last week posted a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of two suspects in the murder of an Orange County man shot during a robbery near a busy Koreatown intersection.

Soo Won Chough, 52, of Anaheim and a friend visiting from South Korea were walking along the 3300 block of Olympic Boulevard at about 10:10 p.m. on Oct. 24 when they were accosted by a gunman, said Detective L. J. Jones of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Division.

The suspect demanded money from the two men. Chough’s friend, Syung Hai Jo, gave him $20. The suspect demanded more money and then ordered the two men to turn around, Jones said. Jo told detectives that he turned around, heard a shot and saw Chough bleeding from his neck.

The gunman then jumped into a white or gray compact car, and he and the car’s driver headed west on Olympic Boulevard, according to police reports. Chough was taken to Westside Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He was married and had a daughter.

Jones said the police have only a sketchy description of the murder suspect, a black man in his early 20s, about 6 feet tall. Anyone who may have witnessed the crime, which took place in front of a Mobil gas station near Western Avenue, is urged to call (213) 485-4033.

George Richter, co-chairman of the Wilshire Community Advisory Committee of the Los Angeles Police Department and a neighborhood activist, called the area around the intersection a “very dangerous spot.”

“There have been tons of street robberies around Western (Avenue) from 8th (Street) to Olympic (Boulevard) in the last three months,” Richter said.

Chough immigrated to Southern California from South Korea more than 10 years ago. James D. Lee, a businessman, said he remembered Chough as “an honest guy with a lot of guts.”

Lee said Chough’s wife, fearful for her husband’s safety, had asked him not to go Koreatown at night, but he wanted to meet his friend at a Koreatown hotel.

“He told his wife: ‘It’s OK. The U. S. is a beautiful country,’ ” Lee said.