3 Charged in Death of Actor Ngor

Murder charges were filed Friday against three men suspected of shooting Academy Award-winning actor and Cambodian activist Haing S. Ngor to death in February outside his apartment near Dodger Stadium.

Tak Sun Tan, 19, of Alhambra was arrested Friday afternoon, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said. Jason Chan, 18, and Idra Lim, 19, both of Los Angeles, were already in police custody in connection with an unrelated robbery, officials said.

Although police have made no official statements as to a motive for the killing, the charges suggest that robbery is suspected.

All three defendants are charged with one count of murder, with a special circumstance allegation that the killing occurred during the course of a robbery. Each defendant also is accused of second-degree robbery.

However, some members of the Cambodian community have suggested that the killing was a political assassination, citing Ngor’s efforts to bring Khmer Rouge perpetrators of the Cambodian holocaust to trial before an international tribunal.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Hum of the office’s Hardcore Gang Division filed the charges against the defendants, whom police described as members of a street gang.

“There’s the potential of the death penalty being sought,” Hum said. “Whether it will be sought or not, that decision hasn’t been made.”

Hum declined to discuss details of the case.

Investigators say Ngor, 55--who survived the savage horrors of the Khmer Rouge before starring in “The Killing Fields,” a movie about the brutality in his native Cambodia--was shot in the torso Feb. 25 as he got out of his car, parked in the carport of his two-bedroom apartment in the 900 block of North Beaudry Avenue.

Thirteen years ago, he was plucked from obscurity as a $400-a-month counselor at the Chinatown Service Center and given a leading role in “The Killing Fields.” The film was based on the memoirs of New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg, played by veteran actor Sam Waterston.

Ngor, who played Schanberg’s translator and photographer, Dith Pran, won an Oscar as best supporting actor in 1984. Ngor was the first nonprofessional in more than 30 years to win an Academy Award for acting.

“The Killing Fields” depicts the collapse of Cambodia in 1975, the torture of Dith by Khmer Rouge revolutionaries who seized the nation, and Dith’s eventual escape to Thailand--events similar to those of Ngor’s life.

According to his autobiography, Ngor was a wealthy physician in Phnom Penh when the victorious Khmer Rouge drove citizens from the city. Tens of thousands fled in terror, among them Ngor.

Doctors were among educated professionals singled out for execution, but Ngor survived by pretending to be an ignorant taxi driver. Caught scavenging roots to supplement his family’s meager diet, he survived torture and eventually escaped imprisonment, reaching Los Angeles in 1980.

After working as a counselor and starring in “The Killing Fields,” Ngor devoted much of his time and income to the support of international refugee groups. He joined Dith in a thus far unsuccessful effort to bring Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot to justice.