Gunman Kills 3, Self in Texas Rampage

A convenience store owner, apparently enraged at a perceived feud, gunned down a husband, wife and daughter in their family-owned store across town, then fatally shot himself in the head at midday Tuesday, police said. About four hours later, authorities found the gunman’s estranged wife dead in the cooler of their convenience store.

Police identified the gunman as Ki Yung Park, 54, and his estranged wife as Byong Sun Park, 42.

The victims at the store were Chung Chang, 58; his wife, Hyun Chang, 54; and their 23-year-old daughter, Kathy, Korean immigrants who had known the gunman for years, said Kristopher Ahn, the family’s lawyer.

The family members were killed at Amko Trading, their discount clothing and perfume store in a Southwest Houston area dominated by strip malls purveying wholesale goods.

Witnesses told police that an Asian man in his 50s walked into the Changs’ store around noon, declaring, “They murdered my family, and now I’m going to murder them.” Then he began firing.

Although a neighbor said the Changs employed four other people, the gunman apparently only pursued the family.

“When I heard the shots, I got out and ran,” said employee Ruben Zuniga.

Several people acquainted with the suspect said he was embroiled in a feud with the Changs, accusing Chung Chang of wrecking his business and meddling in his marriage. In recent weeks, they said, the gunman had been acting particularly erratically.

“He was mentally disturbed,” said Helen Chang, a family friend and vice president of Houston’s Korean American Assn. Helen Chang, who is not related to the victims, said the gunman entered the store, shot the couple’s daughter first, shot the father as he tried to escape and shot the mother as she hid in a bathroom.

Attorney Ahn said the gunman “apparently came into the store alleging that Mr. Chang had an affair with his wife. I know the Changs, and he’s not the kind of person who would do that. It doesn’t carry any weight.”

The Changs had had much to celebrate lately. Chung Chang, who emigrated from South Korea with his family 15 years ago, had recently celebrated his birthday. His family had thrown a huge party, Ahn said. Their business was flourishing; Chang was on the board of directors of Radio Korea-Houston; and a daughter who was not in the store on Tuesday had recently gotten married, Ahn said.

“He was very happy about the way things have been going lately,” Ahn said.

Robert Lee, whose family owns a store across from Amko Trading, said he has known the Changs for six years and that the strip mall’s mostly Korean merchants are generally on friendly terms.

“They were very nice people,” Lee said of the Changs. “We had coffee together this morning around 9. The door’s always open--I would just go in and drink coffee and say hi. They were perfectly normal--there was nothing wrong. It’s a shock to everybody.”

Houston TV station KHOU said Amko had been a supplier to the Parks’ convenience store and that the feud appeared to have developed when the wholesale business also began to supply a competing convenience store.

Police were alerted to the rampage at the Changs’ store when someone flagged a passing squad car around noon. The officer drove to the store’s entrance, where he saw a man leaving the store with a gun. Spying the officer, the gunman barricaded himself back in the building.

When a camouflaged SWAT team arrived, the gunman shot himself, a police spokesman said. Inside the store, SWAT team members found the gravely injured gunman and the bodies of all three Changs. Nearby were two pistols, both of which apparently were fired.

In the hours after the killings, occupants of the strip mall wept intensely. A sobbing young woman in gray pants struggled futilely against police, trying to enter the store.

The Changs have two surviving daughters.

Park and his wife have three children, ages 16 to 21, said Helen Chang. Many people in the community knew the woman and heard her complain about her husband, she said.

“I didn’t know the gunman, but I know of him,” Helen Chang said. “He’s very well known to have had schizophrenia, to have doubts about his wife. He’s well known for that, but we didn’t know it was that serious.”

But friends contacted police Tuesday, alarmed after they were unable to reach Park’s wife, and sparked a police search of the couple’s convenience store.