Alleged Racists Held in Slaying of Tustin Asian

Two roommates described by authorities as “white supremacist types” were arrested by a police SWAT team in the predawn hours Saturday in connection with the January stabbing death of a 24-year-old Asian American man on a Tustin High School tennis court.

Acting on a confidential tip, police captured Gunner J. Lindberg, 21, of Tustin, and his 17-year-old roommate and co-worker, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, Sgt. Brent Zicarelli said. Both sport gang tattoos and, because white supremacist materials were found in the pair’s apartment, the stabbing is being investigated as a hate crime, Zicarelli said.

“We believe it was a simple robbery motive, but there are some overtones toward hate crime so we are looking into that also,” Zicarelli said. “It appears, though, that it was a gangster robbery. They see a person by himself in a dark area and they say, ‘Hey let’s get him.’ ”

Former Tustin High student Thien Minh Ly was knifed more than a dozen times Jan. 29 at the school’s tennis court, which he regularly visited to practice his in-line skating. The body of the Georgetown University master’s graduate and former UCLA student leader was found later in the day by a campus custodian. Ly was still wearing his skates when he was discovered.

Zicarelli said the two suspects made statements about “specifics” of the crime that would seem to tie them to the stabbing and that some evidence was recovered from the apartment, including clothes that appeared to be stained with blood. Authorities, however, do not know whose blood is on the clothing. Police also found white supremacist posters and the symbols of Nazi Germany throughout the apartment.

The pair were being held without bail Saturday--Lindberg at the Orange County Jail and his roommate at Orange County Juvenile Hall. A booking slip indicated that both suspects worked at Kmart in Tustin.

About a dozen members of the Orange County Sheriff’s special tactics unit, in full body armor and toting assault rifles, joined about 15 Tustin police officers in the early morning arrest at an apartment in the 15500 block of Pasadena Avenue, Zicarelli said.

The juvenile suspect bolted through a window when police used a battering ram on the apartment’s front door at 3:10 a.m., but he was intercepted by police with K-9 dogs stationed in an adjacent alleyway.

“He didn’t have anywhere to go, nowhere at all,” Zicarelli said. “These are bad guys. We didn’t want anyone escaping. . . . This was considered a high-risk warrant.”

Lindberg is also wanted on a Missouri warrant for a first-degree assault charge--the equivalent of an attempted murder charge in that state--for allegedly shooting a rival with a shotgun. He also served more than three years in a Missouri prison for another shooting in 1992. No information was available on the record of his juvenile companion, who neighbors said is named Dominic.

Zicarelli said he and other investigators had hoped the arrest would yield some motive or connection to the victim that would explain the violence. But on Saturday, he said there appeared to be no other reason than random robbery.

“It’s really just terrible, just unbelievably senseless,” Zicarelli said. “This is a guy that had everything to live for.”

Thu Ly, the victim’s sister, said investigators on Saturday told her family the killing appeared to be random but potentially motivated by racial hatred.

“I’m in shock still. I’m still in denial,” Thu Ly said. “The fact that it might have been a hate crime makes it even more overwhelming.”

Thu Ly said neither the family nor her brother knew the two suspects, who are white.

“It’s such a senseless act,” she said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

Coroner’s investigators said Ly died sometime between midnight Jan. 28 and 7:30 a.m. Jan. 29. Detectives initially theorized Ly might have known the person who knifed him more than a dozen times. There were few signs indicating that Ly was surprised or had tried to fend off the killer, police said at the time.

Investigators have also said all his wounds were inflicted with one knife, indicating the attacker probably acted alone.

The arrests comes just days after a report by the Orange County Human Relations Commission saying skinheads and other white supremacists were responsible for the majority of local hate crimes in 1995, committing 102 of 175 crimes. Crimes against African Americans and Asian Americans increased in 1995, while crimes against Jews declined.

Ly graduated in the top 10 of his class at Tustin High School with a 4.53 grade-point average and went on to UCLA, where he received a bachelor’s degree in biology and English. In August 1995, he earned a master’s degree at Georgetown in Washington, D.C., specializing in physiology and biophysics.

The graduate often talked about becoming a doctor but in the past few months had entertained thoughts of going to law school, relatives said. He had returned from Washington only weeks before his death to live with his family in Tustin and look for a job.

While at UCLA, he served as president of the university’s Vietnamese Students Assn., and was active with other community organizations, often working to improve conditions of Vietnamese refugee camps in Southeast Asia. Friends say Ly also made it a point to reach out to freshman students and make them feel comfortable at UCLA.

Family members said they last saw Ly when he left the house alone about 9 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 28, to go skating, which he frequently did in the evenings for exercise. He had not brought his wallet so police were not able to identify him until that Monday afternoon.

Times staff writers Dexter Filkins and Thao Hua contributed to this story.