Family Grieves for Man They Say Police Failed to Protect

There was pain for friends and family when 81-year-old Dong-Sik Chong was robbed and beaten last Christmas and left unconscious near a downtown freeway exit. There was pain when they learned that still-unexplained police conduct may have played a role. And there was pain last Friday when the old man died.

All of it spilled out Tuesday when Chong, a hard-working farmer from Korea who enjoyed robust health all his life, was buried in Hollywood amid the wailing of his grief-stricken wife and daughters and the sad reflections of others who knew him.

Koreans who attended the funeral remained frustrated, contending that police had released Chong in a high-crime area at 3 a.m. after taking him into custody in December.

The case has mobilized a multiethnic coalition of civil rights groups demanding a full explanation of what happened and new Los Angeles Police Department procedures for handling non-English-speaking citizens.

The Rev. Gohang-Hee Kim, pastor of Life Door Assembly of God Church in Koreatown, where Chong was a member, described him Tuesday as a traditional Korean gentleman of few words.

“What happened to Grandfather Chong must never happen again in this city,” the pastor said.

On Dec. 28, as was his daily habit, Chong went for a walk. He recently had moved to live with his daughter’s family in Koreatown, and could not find his way back.

When he did not return home at the usual time, family members went looking for him. Finally, they called the police.

Meanwhile, after hours of wandering, a confused and anxious Chong, who spoke no English and was hard of hearing, finally thought he had located his house. He banged on the chain-link gate and shouted in Korean to open it.

When he saw a figure in the window, he mistakenly thought it was his American son-in-law, Randolph Becher, so he banged even louder.

Before he realized what was happening, policemen appeared on the scene. Chong later said he was ordered into the spread-eagle position, handcuffed and taken into custody. No attempt was made to contact a Korean-speaking interpreter, he told a reporter and family members.

Sometime later, police released him, but the facts remain in dispute. The family contends police set him free to wander from the Ramparts station; police say he was held at the Northeast station, then driven to a homeless shelter near downtown, which subsequently let him go.

Chong was discovered by paramedics on Dec. 30 near a freeway exit. His face was bloodied He required 10 stitches on his forehead, and he had bruises on the cheek and eyes. Soon thereafter he was hospitalized for pneumonia.

“He never regained his health,” said his wife, Kwan-Pun Chong, as she wiped her tears beside her husband’s coffin.

Her eldest daughter, Yong-Sook Becher, was too overcome with grief to speak Tuesday. Clinging to his coffin, she wailed: “Aboji! [Father] Aboji!”

The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Internal Affairs Office.

K. S. Park, a staff attorney at Korean Immigrants Workers Advocates and a close friend of grandson Joon Chong, said the family is considering legal action.

After the funeral, the Rev. Kim, who often visited Chong at his home, asked a tearful question.

“How could law enforcement officers, who are supposed to uphold the law, mistreat an old man who got lost and knocked on the wrong door?” he said.