From: kpham@cs.concordia.ca
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: Luyen Phan Nguyen's death shocks Asian community
Date: 30 Aug 92 20:13:27 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

This article was extract from Miami Herald Newspaper in Florida.


		TEEN'S DEATH SHOCKS ASIAN COMMUNITY

				By MARILYN GARATEIX
				By NAFTALI BENDAVID
					Miami Herald Staff Writers


	Just hours after burying him, the family of 19-years-old Luyen
Phan Nguyen gathered at the Springside Apartments Thursday and prayed
in the grassy area where the University of Miami pre-med student was
beaten to death by a mob.
	Michael Barber, a resident of the Coral Springs complex who 
called 911 and tried to help Nguyen, watched the family from his 
apartment.
	"It's a shame no one came out sooner to help," Barber said,
solemnly. "The kid might still be alive."
	Led by a Buddhist monk, about 100 family members, friends-
many dressed in traditional Vietnamese attire - and Asian-American
leaders gathered Thursday at Deerfield Memorial Cemetery in Deerfield
Beach to lay Nguyen to rest.
	Nguyen's younger brother, 16-years-old Long, clutched a picture
of him. The two boys were close. Both planned to be doctor just like
their father.
	Family and friends will plant a 10 for white orchid tree in 
memory of Nguyen at p.m. today at Fern Glen Park, 4801 NW 66th Ter., in
Coral Springs.

	After Thursday's funeral, Coral Springs police say the five foot
seven inch, 135-pound Nguyen was being chased down like "a wounded
deer" and beaten about the head by about 15 partygoers.
	Police have said the fight at Spring-side, 9020 Royal Palm
Blvd., began when Nguyen prostested a racial slur. The dispute moved
to a grassy area in the apartment complex where, police say, Nguyen 
was repeatedly hit and kicked my the mob.
	Police have charged five young men with second-degree murder
and expect to make more arrests. A sixth man was arrested late 
Thursday night in connection with the case.
	Barber was watching television Saturday night when he heard
the fight out side and ran out to his balcony. He grabbed his phone,
dialed 911:
	"Yeah, someone just got beat up out here," Barber said. "Uh,
he's laying on the ground. I'm going to go check it out. There's
about 30 kids just beat up on him."
	Nguyen, whose family left Vietnam in 1980, died Monday 
morning from bleeding in the brain cause by a fractured neck, 
according to the Broward County medical examiner's office.
	The brutal death of the Vietnamese youth has stunned a 
normally quiet Asian-American community, with many demanding justice.
	The phone at the Asian-American Federation of Florida rang
repeatedly Thursday.
	"This boy had so much future," said Khanya Moolsiri, the 
group's president,who also attended the funeral. "There are some
tough Asian kids, but this was not a tough Asian kid."
	About 40 people gathered at the Korean Presbyterian Church 
in North Miami Thursday night for what was to be a routine meeting
of the Asian-American Federation. Instead, the evening was dominated
by grief over Nguyen's death and determination never to let such an
event occur again.
	The organization was joined by representatives of other 
minority groups. Alcee Hastings, former federal judge and current
congressional candidate, represented the NAACP. Arthur Teitelbaum,
regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith, 
pledged his organization's resources.
	But the most emotional words were delivered by Tong Le, the
Nguyen family's neighbor and close friend."The Vietnamese who came     
here share one thing in common: We fought the Communists," Le said.
"What is so ironic and tragic is the victim's father used to fight
alongside Amercan forces in South Vietnam."
	The killing has begun to attract national and even   
international attention. The Japanese-language Yomiuri Shimbun,
the world's largest newspaper, with a daily circulation of   
13 million, ran a story on Nguyen this week.
	The National Network Against Anti-Asian Violence sent a   
letter to the U.S Department of Justice calling for a full          
investigation, and similar letters were sent to U.S. senators 
Connie Mack, R-Fla., and Bob Graham, D-Fla.
	U.S. Rep. Norman Mineta, D-Calif., a Japanese-American,    
also spoke out Thursday."We cannot afford to let this savage
racial murder go unanswered," Mineta said. "Crimes of hatred and
violence have no place anywhere in America."