Owner Who Survived Riots Slain in Robbery

A day after her husband was shot to death in a robbery at their South-Central Los Angeles market, a distraught Jung Sook Chong noted with irony Saturday how the couple had managed to survive the 1992 riots without a scratch.

“I turned over everything in the cash register. They took $3,000, but they still had to take my husband’s life,” she said in Korean, her voice choking with emotion.

On Saturday afternoon, as she mourned Yon Duk Chong’s death with their two college-age daughters and visitors in her Koreatown apartment, Chong said she cannot imagine life without her husband and teammate.

They got through the riots with help from neighbors who helped them guard the store. “My husband and I felt that they were not only our customers but friends,” she said.

Even recently, around closing time, such customers and other residents would come to the store to make sure everything was all right. But Friday afternoon, Chong and her husband were by themselves, perhaps because of the bad weather.

Ever since they immigrated to the United States from South Korea 13 years ago, they had worked side by side.

Her husband was gunned down Friday afternoon in their store at 2111 S. Central Ave., which the couple had owned for eight years. In addition to selling groceries, they cashed checks, which accounted for the large amount of cash on hand.

Los Angeles Police Officer Mike Partain said the victim was shot once in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene. Two male suspects, described as Latinos between ages 25 and 35, were seen headed west on East 22nd Street on foot and remain at large, Partain said. Newton Division detectives are investigating the case.

As with countless other Korean immigrants, the couple’s main reason for coming to America was to find a better future for their children, Chong said.

Despite the long hours and many obstacles they had to overcome, they lived with hope, friends said.

“The girls were their father’s pride and joy,” said Chang Ki Lee, a cousin. “The girls made him happy because they were such good students and good daughters.”

One is a student at UCLA, and the other attends UC San Diego.

Chong told police that she was at the cash register about 4:10 p.m. Friday when two men walked in. Her husband was in the back of the store repairing a leak.

“The minute I saw the men, I thought something was amiss, so I was trying to get away from the cash register,” she said.

But before she could move, one man pulled a knife and demanded money.

“I turned over everything--$3,000,” she said. “I thought if I gave him the money, we would be left alone.”

Then she heard a gunshot, the widow said.

She dialed 911 and ran to the back of the store to her husband.

“I shook him, but he didn’t move,” she said. “I still didn’t think he was gone. I could not believe that one bullet could take my husband’s life. Surely, I thought, when an ambulance came and took him to an emergency room, he would recover.”

Instead, she said, paramedics examined him and pronounced him dead.

“Our pleasure was watching our children grow,” she said tearfully. “We worked so hard for our dream. We tried to do everything right. I don’t know how this could happen to us.”

A customer who came to shop at the store Saturday afternoon was surprised to find it closed and was shocked when told about the killing.

“He was such a nice man,” said the shopper, who identified himself only as David. “Lord, what’s happening around here?” he asked as he walked away, shaking his head.