Long Beach Police Arrest Suspect in Shootings of 2

Long Beach police on Tuesday announced the arrest of a suspect in the ambush-style shootings of two Cambodian men last spring and said they are investigating whether he was involved in other attacks that have alarmed the refugee population.

“We are looking into other suspects too,” said Sgt. Paul LeBaron, a department spokesman.

“I’m very happy to hear of this,” said James Dok, a minister and executive director of United Cambodian Community Inc., a nonprofit that serves the world’s largest Cambodian population outside that Southeast Asian nation. “We’ve been worried.”

Hongda Phanniphon, 27, was arrested on suspicion of murder about 9:30 p.m. Monday at his home near Bixby Road and Cherry Avenue in Long Beach, not far from where he is accused of fatally shooting one man and wounding a second, LeBaron said.

Phanniphon, a reputed member of a Cambodian gang with previous arrests for receiving stolen property and violating a domestic abuse restraining order, remained in custody pending his arraignment today.

Police said they believe he approached a parked car March 24, 2003, and fatally shot Lyna Heang, 20, and wounded a 21-year-old passenger of Cambodian descent. The wounded man was not identified to protect him from retaliation.

A third Cambodian man, 18, was also in the car at the time but was not wounded, police said.

The arrest stemmed from an intensive investigation by Long Beach detectives, whose efforts at solving crimes against residents of Cambodian heritage have often been complicated by the community’s traditional distrust of police.

After the high-profile ambush murders in October of U.S. Marine Sok Khak Ung and rapper Vouthy Tho, refugee business and religious leaders took extra pains to encourage fellow Cambodians to report what they knew.