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Authorities Investigate Racial Aspect of Newmarket Homicide

Thung Phetakoune

By Associated Press

First, Richard Labbe accused Thung Phetakoune of killing Americans in Vietnam. Then, authorities alleged, he killed the Laotian American.

Phetakoune, 62, died on July 16, two days after police said he was assaulted by Labbe, his neighbor in Newmarket, New Hampshire. Labbe is charged with second-degree assault, but prosecutors are considering more serious charges to reflect the death and allegations that racism motivated the attack.

According to court documents, Labbe told police when arrested: “What’s going on is that those Asians killed Americans and you won’t do anything about it so I will ... Call it payback.”

Phetakoune had tried to break up an argument between Labbe and Sam Chan, another neighbor who recently had delivered an eviction notice to Labbe from the building landlord, say police.

According to Chan, Phetakoune’s family hopes the charges against Labbe include violating the state’s hate crime law, which allows prison sentences to be lengthened by up to 30 years for crimes other than murder.

“They want it to be prosecuted as a hate crime,” Chan said, according to Foster’s Daily Democrat. “We have faith in the system. We hope the law carries out the charges.”

Chan said Labbe should be punished to the full extent of the law.

“A great grandfather has passed away,” he said.

While investigators said they were examining racism allegations, Labbe’s father, Carlton Labbe, stated he does not believe the incident was racially motivated.

The elder Labbe said he believes the fatal attack was caused by his son’s alcoholism, which transforms him into a violent person, and said he has been threatened by his son several times, himself. Richard Labbe, 35, has a long criminal record.

His son’s claims to police that the attack was payback for the death of a brother and uncle in Vietnam were untrue, Carlton Labbed added, because the family lost no relatives in Vietnam.

“[Alcohol] knocks his brain cuckoo. When he drinks that stuff, he goes haywire,” he said.

Phetakoune’s grandson said he heard an angry and drunken Labbe screaming at his grandfather about having lost a relative in Vietnam. But the grandson said his grandfather fought in the Laotian Army alongside Americans in Vietnam. Phetakoune reportedly fled Laos when the Vietnam War ended and was granted political asylum in the United States.

Phetakoune’s grandson said he saw police cars rushing to their neighborhood early on July 14. When he ran outside he saw his grandfather’s body lying in a pool of blood between two cars in the parking lot.

Phetakoune’s grandson said it took two police officers to wrestle the 220-pound Labbe to the ground. The victim was said to have weighed between 80 and 120 pounds.

The grandson said his grandfather and Labbe did not know each other. The young man said he was afraid to give his own name for fear of racial retribution against him and other Laotian families in the neighborhood.

Before the death, Richard Labbe was arraigned on a charge of second-degree assault and resisting arrest. Bail was set at $300,000. In arguing for the high bail, Assistant Attorney General Michael Delaney cited a criminal record in Massachusetts that included rape, escape, assault, arson, criminal threatening and kidnapping.

Labbe wept in court on July 16 when he heard of the victim’s emminent death as a result of the injuries.

Delaney said Labbe moved with his girlfriend and 17-year-old son to Phetakoune’s neighborhood two years ago and was in the process of being evicted from his apartment. Police said Labbe claimed he had consumed a case of beer and ingested cocaine five hours before the attack.

Authorities said they are investigating the racism allegations. “We have treated those matters very seriously as part of this investigation,” Delaney said.