Police Release Suspect in O.C. Officer’s Death

Police late Monday abruptly freed the man arrested in the killing of a California Highway Patrol officer, offering few explanations and apparently leaving them without a suspect in custody.

Young Ho Choi, 32, arrested Sunday in the murder of 25-year-old CHP Officer Don Burt, walked away from Fullerton City Jail. Police refused to say why they let him go--whether they didn’t have enough evidence to seek a murder charge against him or whether they decided they had arrested the wrong man.

“Mr. Choi was released at 9 p.m. pending further investigation,” Fullerton Police Department watch commander Craig Brower said. “We’ve got more work to do.”

Choi did not have to post bail.

Assistant Orange County Dist. Atty. Brent Romney said late Monday that police released Choi without presenting the case to the district attorney’s office.

A news conference was scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Fullerton City Hall Council Chambers.

The family of the slain officer reacted with little emotion to Choi’s release. They said they were confident the police would get the killer.

“We want the right person apprehended, tried, convicted and punished, not just any person,” said Michael Muravez, the father-in-law of the slain officer and a retired deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “It’s not as simple as people sometimes think it is. We have all the faith in the world that they’ll do the job.”

Other family members said they were too consumed with grief to worry about a suspect.

“You know what? I’m not even following this, I couldn’t even tell you his [the suspect’s] name,” the officer’s father, Don R. Burt, said. “That’s because we’re not concerned with the person who did this to our son. We’re not going to get justice, because there is no justice in this case. We will never get our son back.”

Young Ho Choi

Choi was arrested early Sunday after several witnesses told police that a man matching his description shot Burt six times and then stood over him to deliver the final shot.

Though Choi had been the prime suspect in Burt’s killing, little in his background suggested that he might be a killer.

Choi had two cocaine convictions in Los Angeles County and a long string of traffic offenses in Orange County. Neighbors said he had trouble holding down a steady job, and two months ago his wife walked out on him and took her two children with her. He sometimes used aliases.

Choi had no record of violence. Some witnesses, just after the killing, told police a teen or a young adult appeared to be the killer.

Choi had accumulated many traffic tickets and a pair of drug convictions.

Court records and interviews with people who know Choi suggest a portrait of a man who got in trouble often--but nothing approaching this kind of trouble. Only a few details suggest a different Choi.

His friends called him Andy.

“When I found out, I was shocked,” said Lolita Abrams, who lives in the Buena Park apartment complex where Choi lived until about a month ago. Abrams described Choi as friendly and quiet.

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

In two cocaine cases in Los Angeles, he used two different aliases, Imin Ho Choi and Min Ho Choi.

Several witnesses present at the scene of the killing 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. The results were not available Monday night.

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Two big questions remained about Saturday’s altercation. Police said they might never be answered.

First, it wasn’t clear why Burt decided to pull over the driver and direct the BMW off the Orange Freeway. Burt discovered that the license of the driver was suspended after he ran a check on the police computer.

“That’s something we may never know,” CHP Officer Keith Thornhill said.

Second, no one knows exactly what sparked the altercation. Police say Burt, while looking through the car, found a load of bogus traveler’s checks in the trunk.

Meanwhile, Fullerton homicide Sgt. Greg Mays said more than 15 investigators were working Monday to piece together the case.

“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 have been recovered. Despite some early accounts that the killer had wrestled Burt’s gun away and turned it on him, police now say the killer used his own 9-millimeter handgun.

Condolence calls continued to flow Monday into the CHP’s Santa Ana office, where Burt had worked since April 1995. More than 50 people from as far as Minnesota called to offer condolences and donations to the widow of the slain rookie. Burt’s wife, Kristin, is seven months pregnant.

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

Memorial services for Burt will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Calvary Chapel, 3800 S. Fairview Street in Costa Mesa. Burial will be private, family members said Monday.

Choi, a native of 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.

Employees at the Day’s Inn in Palm Springs said Choi worked there painting rooms for about six weeks. On Saturday, he said he was going to Orange County to visit his estranged wife and their children, and he never returned, they said.

Garrett Stern, manager of the Day’s Inn, said Choi answered an ad for painters in a Korean-language newspaper.

In Buena Park, where Choi lived until about a month ago, some neighbors described him as a layabout who didn’t hold a job.

Chull Yong Park, the apartment manager’s brother, said Choi skipped out on the rent after his wife left him.

Park said Choi often stayed indoors all day, only to emerge about midnight to work on his car.

“He was mostly good, but sometimes he was crazy,” Park said.

In September 1993, facing several traffic charges in Orange County, he missed a court date 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 on probation on the drug possession case, Choi was arrested again in Los Angeles County on suspicion of 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.

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.”

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