Suspect in Officer’s Killing Has Record of Minor Crimes

Before Young Ho Choi allegedly gunned down a California Highway Patrol officer over the weekend, he hardly seemed like the killer police now believe he is.

Choi, a 32-year-old painting contractor and father of two, ran up a string of minor traffic violations and a pair of unremarkable drug convictions before police say he shot and killed 25-year-old Officer Don Burt Saturday night.

Indeed, it was an apparent traffic violation that ignited the incident that led to Burt’s death. Burt, a rookie, pulled over Choi’s BMW at Nutwood and Placentia avenues in Fullerton and quickly discovered that Choi’s driver’s license was suspended.

When Burt tried to impound Choi’s car, a scuffle erupted. That is when police and several witnesses say Choi shot the officer seven times.

Today, Choi is expected to be charged in Burt’s death.

Choi, whose friends called him Andy, had most recently worked painting rooms at a Day’s Inn in Palm Springs.

Court records and interviews with people who knew him suggest a portrait of a man who got into trouble often--but not the kind he is in now.

“He was no trouble at all,” said Lolita Abrams, who lives in a Buena Park apartment complex where Choi lived for about three years until marital problems forced him to move out a month ago. Abrams described Choi as friendly and quiet.

“When I found out, I was shocked,” she said of Choi’s arrest on suspicion of shooting Burt.

Other neighbors described him as a layabout who didn’t hold down a job.

Chull Yong Park, who lives in the building, said Choi often stayed indoors all day, emerging around midnight to work on his car. Residents sometimes complained about the noise.

Choi’s wife moved out a month ago, fed up with her husband’s laziness, Park said.

Court records in Orange and Los Angeles counties show that Choi had run up at least 11 traffic violations in recent years, including six for driving with a suspended license. He also was convicted of possession of cocaine in Los Angeles County, and for carrying drug paraphernalia in Orange County.

Hardly a stellar resume, but hardly the stuff of a cop killer, either.

Police, though they are not saying much publicly, believe they have their man.

“He has been detained on eyewitness identification,” Fullerton Police Sgt. David Stanko said.

Several witnesses at the murder scene Saturday said a man matching Choi’s description wrestled with the officer, shot him and drove off in his patrol car. The night of the shooting, officers ran ballistic tests on Choi’s hands, covering them in plastic bags. The results were not available Monday afternoon.

It is not clear exactly what spurred the altercation, but police say that Burt, while looking through Choi’s car, found a load of bogus travelers checks.

Meanwhile, Fullerton investigators continued to search for evidence against Choi.

Fullerton Homicide Sgt. Greg Mays said more than 15 investigators scrambled Monday to piece together enough evidence to support murder charges.

“We’re trying to run everything together,” Mays said. “We’re going to do the best we can.”

Neither the shooter’s gun nor Burt’s service weapon had been found Monday, Mays said. Police think Choi used his own 9-millimeter handgun to shoot Burt. Some early accounts suggested that Choi had wrestled Burt’s gun away from him and turned it on the officer.

CHP Officer Keith Thornhill said it remains unclear why Burt pulled the BMW off the freeway.

“That’s something we may never know,” he said.

Meanwhile, condolence calls flowed into the CHP’s Santa Ana office, where Burt had worked since April 1995. More than 50 people, some from as far away as Minnesota, called to offer condolences and donations to the rookie’s widow. Burt’s wife, Kristin, is seven months pregnant.

“It’s been ringing off the hook, every few seconds,” Thornhill said of the telephone.

Choi, a native of South Korea, appears to have lived a restless life in recent years. He listed several Orange County addresses, and also appears to have spent some time in Milpitas near San Jose, records show. Last month, he worked as a painter at the Palm Springs resort.

Garrett Stern, manager of a Day’s Inn in Palm Springs, said Choi answered an ad for painters in the Korea Times, a local newspaper. He told Stern he had a wife and two children in Orange County, but said he and his wife were separated.

Court records tell a story of a man in near-constant petty trouble with the law--accumulating a stack of arrests.

In September 1993, facing a handful of traffic charges in Orange County, he skipped a court date and ended up with a 60-day jail sentence. In January 1989, Choi pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine in Los Angeles County a year earlier.

While out on probation on that drug possession case, Choi was arrested in Los Angeles County for transportation of cocaine, using the name Imin Ho Choi, court records show. His sentencing on both counts earned him a year in jail and five years’ probation. He served 181 days in jail.

Records also show that Choi used the name Min Ho Choi.

Transcripts from the sentencing indicate Choi had a juvenile record and another arrest in the San Jose area.

“I wonder why we are so good with this young man,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J.D. Smith said at the January 1989 sentencing. “If you read his juvenile history, and adult arrest in San Jose, we are giving him two crimes for the price of one. We are being nice to him.”

Times staff writer Thao Hua and Times correspondents Jeff Kass, John Pope, Alan Eyerly and Diana Marcum also contributed to this report.