No Indictment for Police in Death of Korean
March 6, 2000
Defense disputes officers’ version of story
By Jason MaA grand jury in New Jersey announced March 8 that it would not indict South Brunswick police officers for the Dec. 21, 1999 shooting death of Korean American Kyung-Ho La, unable to find his death anything other than legally justified.
According to the official version of the events leading up to La’s death, Sgt. Raymond Hayducka, Officer Scott Williams, three other officers and two mental health workers arrived at the La house at 27 Raleigh Road to determine whether La, 30, was a “danger to himself or others,” after receiving reports of “bizarre behavior.”
After the mental health workers began questioning La, the grand jury report stated, he soon became “agitated” and took possession of a “sword blade.” Hayducka and Williams then ordered the other officers out of the house and the two followed La “at close range.” After ignoring commands to drop the weapon, La “lunged” at Hayducka, who then fired one shot. La continued to retreat further into the house with sword in hand until he lay down on the living room floor and surrendered himself 10 minutes later.
It was then that the police discovered La was injured and took him to a local hospital where he underwent surgery twice for his wounds. An autospy revealed that when the bullet entered La’s right hip, it damaged several organs and severed the left femoral artery. He died at 1:50 a.m. on Dec. 22 of hemorrhagic shock.
However, attorneys for the La family contest the reported chain of events, calling them “preposterous,” and have filed a civil suit in addition to asking the state attorney general’s office to conduct an independent investigation. “It is virtually impossible for this young man to have been shot in the groin, sustain massive internal injury, including a severed artery, and then run to another room where he kneeled for 10 minutes before surrendering to police,” attorney Bruce Nagel said.
In addition, the family disputes the officers’ claim that La’s mother was in the house when the shooting took place, saying Hayducka had ordered everyone outside, according to attorney Adam Slater. That denied La’s parents a chance to calm him down.
The family also contests the police’s assessment of La as mentally unstable, explaining that neighbors mistook his introverted demeanor. “That’s an overreaction based on the small-minded complaints of a white neighbor,” Slater said.
Furthermore, the object La was carrying described by police as a “sword blade,” was a blade for kindling firewood, Slater said, which La picked up because he felt threatened by the police. “There’s no sword,” he said. “Use of the word sword is used to conjure up images of a sword-wielding samurai. It’s stereotyping and it’s not true. … He never aimed that blade at anybody.”
Police did not respond to requests for comments.
While not disputing the official version of the story, the grand jury criticized the lack of an independent investigation and police’s handling of La.
The grand jury report states that jurors recommended the attorney general of U.S. attorney’s office investigate the shooting and expressed concern over the “appearance of collusion or a cover-up” when the attorney general decided to hand it over to the county prosecutor.
And while the grand jury voted by a majority not to indict the officers, the report did not state that the decision was unanimous. In fact, some members questioned whether “the escalation of an innocent situation, with only good intentions, into a tragic one, culminating with the loss of a human life could have somehow been avoided,” according to the report.
Moreover, individual members of the jury questioned whether the officers had been sufficiently trained to deal with a person, whom they believed to be “mentally or emotionally unstable.”
Other jurors also suggested that if some officers or mental health workers of Asian descent had been at the scene, then any misunderstandings of a cultural nature might have been avoided. As it was, all the officers and mental health workers were white.
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