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Time to fight back
Father caught in violent feud between two Asian gangs
By Kate Fowlie
Record Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, June 25, 2003
When Soeun Hem fled war-torn Cambodia 24 years ago, he vowed he would never pick up a gun again. As a member of the Cambodian monarchy's special forces, the opposition to the ruthless communist Khmer Rouge, he had seen enough killing.
But Friday, the 43-year-old Stockton translator and paralegal took up a shotgun. Hem was trying to defend himself and his family from alleged gang members who had showered his north Stockton home with bullets.
His home was hit 43 times.
It wasn't the first time it's happened. In fact, Hem's home has been shot at in similar fashion five times in six months.
Neither Hem, his wife nor his seven children have been injured. Instead, they wait in fear for the next time.
"It seems to be like in a movie," Hem said following the latest and most brazen attack.
Investigators say the shootings are gang-related.
Hem's family is an example of a not uncommon problem in Stockton's Southeast Asian immigrant community, Deputy Police Chief David Cole said. Parents who immigrated to the United States for a better life find their children increasingly drawn into gangs.
The situation becomes more complicated when community members fail to seek police help because of experiences they had with corrupt governments in their native countries, Cole said.
The shooters are brazen, because they know their victims won't call police, Cole said. Hem, who immigrated to the United States in 1984, didn't ask for police help until after the third attack.
Cole said the attacks on Hem's house stem from a feud between two Asian gangs -- the Asian Boys and the Original Crip Gangsters.
Hem admits one of his sons, 18, was in a gang in the past but says he got out after being shot and nearly killed in 2000. He is now living in another city.
Hem's children have told police they don't know the shooters' identities.
Police investigating the attacks say Hem's children may not be providing police with all the information they need to solve the case.
A lack of cooperation would not be uncommon for current or former members of a Southeast Asian gang, Cole said.
Members usually refuse to turn on each other, even more so than other gangs, because of fears of retaliation, Cole said. "They absolutely will not tell police anything," Cole said. "When it comes to Southeast Asian gangs, they are a different breed, and Asian gangs tend to retaliate against the entire family."
The Police Department offered to put Hem's family up in a hotel after Friday's attack as part of a witness-protection program, but Hem refused.
Hem said he is unsure of a motive for the shootings.
The attacks may be related to his son's past gang affiliation or to his 16-year-old daughter's rejection of one young man's romantic advances, he said.
A civil lawsuit that grew from his son's shooting, or his own work as a Cambodian court translator, also may be connected to the shootings, he said.
Frightened for his children's lives, Hem sent his eldest son, the 16-year-old daughter and two other siblings, ages 13 and 14, to live in another city three months ago.
But the children miss their parents and their three other, younger siblings, so they come home to visit.
The daughter and some of the others were home the day of the most recent attack, at 2:30 a.m. Friday.
A van slowly drove by the tidy, beige, Westmora Avenue home, and its occupants fired guns -- a .40-caliber pistol and possibly a 9 mm Tec-9 style semiautomatic.
The shooting went on so long that Hem's wife, Leak Seth, 40, screamed at her husband to shoot back.
"I was so mad, I told him to shoot back," she said.
Hem grabbed the shotgun, which he reluctantly bought after three attacks.
He hadn't carried a gun since his days in Cambodia, but he could no longer ignore the assault raging outside.
Too afraid to leave the house, he simply fired two warning blasts into the wall of his kitchen. The assailants left.
A temporary fix. But Hem and his family worry fighting back will escalate the violence.
He spent $1,000 on a home-security system to help identify the young men he saw cruising his street and laughing at their handiwork, which he quickly covers with plaster and paint.
The family also is acutely aware of the danger their home poses to the rest of the neighborhood and said they are ashamed of how the other residents must view them.
Hem's daughter, who asked that her name not be used, cried when describing how she feels.
"It hurts," she said, turning her head as she wiped away tears. "We don't want people to think we are bad people."
The shootings are, in fact, terrifying neighbors, said neighbor Dee Dee Goins, 43, a nurse and mother of two.
"I worry about my children," Goins said.
After the first few shootings, Hem said, neighbors stopped coming by to check on them, except for Hem's next-door neighbor, Bud Hopkins, who faithfully helps fill the bullet holes.
"It's amazing that none of them have been hurt," Hopkins said.
Despite the chaos, Hopkins said he doesn't plan to leave his home of 25 years.
"I don't feel safe out front unless I have a weapon, (but) I refuse to move out over this," Hopkins said.
Hem doesn't want to leave either. Between his mortgage and the rent he pays to house his children out of town, he can't afford to.
Instead, he hopes Stockton's five-detective Gang Violence Suppression Unit will catch the shooters.
"We do not want to live in fear. I am a father. I am working so hard to support my children," he said. "I need the police to help me, to keep me and my family safe."
http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/062503/news/articles/062503-gn-1.php
Father caught in violent feud between two Asian gangs
By Kate Fowlie
Record Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, June 25, 2003
When Soeun Hem fled war-torn Cambodia 24 years ago, he vowed he would never pick up a gun again. As a member of the Cambodian monarchy's special forces, the opposition to the ruthless communist Khmer Rouge, he had seen enough killing.
But Friday, the 43-year-old Stockton translator and paralegal took up a shotgun. Hem was trying to defend himself and his family from alleged gang members who had showered his north Stockton home with bullets.
His home was hit 43 times.
It wasn't the first time it's happened. In fact, Hem's home has been shot at in similar fashion five times in six months.
Neither Hem, his wife nor his seven children have been injured. Instead, they wait in fear for the next time.
"It seems to be like in a movie," Hem said following the latest and most brazen attack.
Investigators say the shootings are gang-related.
Hem's family is an example of a not uncommon problem in Stockton's Southeast Asian immigrant community, Deputy Police Chief David Cole said. Parents who immigrated to the United States for a better life find their children increasingly drawn into gangs.
The situation becomes more complicated when community members fail to seek police help because of experiences they had with corrupt governments in their native countries, Cole said.
The shooters are brazen, because they know their victims won't call police, Cole said. Hem, who immigrated to the United States in 1984, didn't ask for police help until after the third attack.
Cole said the attacks on Hem's house stem from a feud between two Asian gangs -- the Asian Boys and the Original Crip Gangsters.
Hem admits one of his sons, 18, was in a gang in the past but says he got out after being shot and nearly killed in 2000. He is now living in another city.
Hem's children have told police they don't know the shooters' identities.
Police investigating the attacks say Hem's children may not be providing police with all the information they need to solve the case.
A lack of cooperation would not be uncommon for current or former members of a Southeast Asian gang, Cole said.
Members usually refuse to turn on each other, even more so than other gangs, because of fears of retaliation, Cole said. "They absolutely will not tell police anything," Cole said. "When it comes to Southeast Asian gangs, they are a different breed, and Asian gangs tend to retaliate against the entire family."
The Police Department offered to put Hem's family up in a hotel after Friday's attack as part of a witness-protection program, but Hem refused.
Hem said he is unsure of a motive for the shootings.
The attacks may be related to his son's past gang affiliation or to his 16-year-old daughter's rejection of one young man's romantic advances, he said.
A civil lawsuit that grew from his son's shooting, or his own work as a Cambodian court translator, also may be connected to the shootings, he said.
Frightened for his children's lives, Hem sent his eldest son, the 16-year-old daughter and two other siblings, ages 13 and 14, to live in another city three months ago.
But the children miss their parents and their three other, younger siblings, so they come home to visit.
The daughter and some of the others were home the day of the most recent attack, at 2:30 a.m. Friday.
A van slowly drove by the tidy, beige, Westmora Avenue home, and its occupants fired guns -- a .40-caliber pistol and possibly a 9 mm Tec-9 style semiautomatic.
The shooting went on so long that Hem's wife, Leak Seth, 40, screamed at her husband to shoot back.
"I was so mad, I told him to shoot back," she said.
Hem grabbed the shotgun, which he reluctantly bought after three attacks.
He hadn't carried a gun since his days in Cambodia, but he could no longer ignore the assault raging outside.
Too afraid to leave the house, he simply fired two warning blasts into the wall of his kitchen. The assailants left.
A temporary fix. But Hem and his family worry fighting back will escalate the violence.
He spent $1,000 on a home-security system to help identify the young men he saw cruising his street and laughing at their handiwork, which he quickly covers with plaster and paint.
The family also is acutely aware of the danger their home poses to the rest of the neighborhood and said they are ashamed of how the other residents must view them.
Hem's daughter, who asked that her name not be used, cried when describing how she feels.
"It hurts," she said, turning her head as she wiped away tears. "We don't want people to think we are bad people."
The shootings are, in fact, terrifying neighbors, said neighbor Dee Dee Goins, 43, a nurse and mother of two.
"I worry about my children," Goins said.
After the first few shootings, Hem said, neighbors stopped coming by to check on them, except for Hem's next-door neighbor, Bud Hopkins, who faithfully helps fill the bullet holes.
"It's amazing that none of them have been hurt," Hopkins said.
Despite the chaos, Hopkins said he doesn't plan to leave his home of 25 years.
"I don't feel safe out front unless I have a weapon, (but) I refuse to move out over this," Hopkins said.
Hem doesn't want to leave either. Between his mortgage and the rent he pays to house his children out of town, he can't afford to.
Instead, he hopes Stockton's five-detective Gang Violence Suppression Unit will catch the shooters.
"We do not want to live in fear. I am a father. I am working so hard to support my children," he said. "I need the police to help me, to keep me and my family safe."
http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/062503/news/articles/062503-gn-1.php
