Rights Group Eyes Kim Shooting Inquiry

Amnesty International, which tracks human rights violations worldwide, is monitoring the investigations into the death of Hong Il Kim, the Korean national shot to death by police after a high-speed chase, according to letters made public Thursday.

The letters, dated April 30 and sent to the Orange County district attorney’s office and various police departments involved in the shooting, requested the results of the investigations being conducted.

Roger De Ganck, the Amnesty International representative who wrote the letter, also asked whether the police officers’ actions “fall in line” with police department guidelines on the use of deadly force. A copy of the various departments’ shooting policies also were requested by the organization.

In a letter to Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, De Ganck said he was concerned that Kim “may have been shot in circumstances that did not justify the use of lethal force, noting that when police opened fire, Mr. Kim was boxed in . . . “

Kim led police on a 30-mile chase that reached speeds up to 100 mph on Valentine’s Day. The chase ended when Kim was boxed into a parking space in a shopping center at Newport and Chapman avenues in Orange. The 27-year-old construction worker then gunned his engine and began driving toward officers, police said. He was shot to death by four officers, two from Orange, one from Westminster and one from the California Highway Patrol.

The death of Kim, who was visiting his family in Buena Park at the time, struck a chord among Asian and Latino community activists, who demanded that police reexamine their policies about use of force.

Police said Kim was trying to run over the officers who were between him and a concrete wall. His family’s attorneys said the officers could have avoided killing Kim by getting out of the way.

Kim had been convicted of three misdemeanors, two for theft and one for carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle.