8/19: Community Response to Dublin Police Killing of 2 Korean Men

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As you may have heard, 2 korean men were shot dead by Dublin police on thursay night last week. Apparently neighbors called the police upon hearing an altercation in a home. Apparently a Korean man was hosting his brother in law from Korea at his Dublin home. They got into an altercation of some sort, and one brother wielded some kind of knife or other instrument and chased the other upstairs into a room, where the fleeing brother was hiding and holding the door shut. Police arrived and through a window, saw one brother outside a door trying to get into a room wielding what they believed to be a knife or other kind of weapon. They quickly went inside the house and instructed the man to drop the knife/object. Not knowing English, the man did not drop the weapon and police claim he stepped towards them in a “threatening manner”. He was shot and killed on the scene. A bullet also pierced through the door and wounded the brother hiding on the other side and he died on Sunday night at the hospital of wounds to his arm and face. The brother’s sister or wife (im not sure) was also present and witnessed the event.

The Dublin police department released the following statements:
http://www.ci.dublin.ca.us/additional.cfm?PageID=1KL82283200516114032
http://www.ci.dublin.ca.us/additional.cfm?PageID=1QD82283200516114337

The first report was issued immediately the day after the shooting, justifying the use of deadly force, even before a coroner’s report was issued. It is obvious that the Dublin police department does not want to launch a public investigation of the officer’s conduct to see if it was a case of excessive use of deadly force. I think given the story, there are questions that need to be raised to the Dublin police about investigating the officer’s conduct, language sensitivity, cultural awareness and restraint in the use of deadly force. Beyond that, it is of the opinion of the sister or wife who witnessed the event that the police used excessive force and did not need to kill both men.

Korean American Association of SF & Greater Bay Area and The Korean Community Center of the East Bay (KCCEB), will be hosting a meeting for anyone who is concerned about this issue and wants to help formulate a community response to this issue. Unfortunately, we need to respond relatively quickly—given the shelf life of news stories and coverage, and given the fact that news stories have been from a police angle for the past couple days (but fortunately we got the community angle for a abc 7 broadcast tonight on the 6 o clock news). If you are interested in participating in this important issue, please come to a meeting scheduled for Friday evening: PLEASE let me know if you can make it via email. We need to send a message to the Dublin police that we need answers and that behavior like this is unacceptable in our community.

MEETING TO DISCUSS COMMUNITY RESPONSE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 19
6:00
KCCEB
4390 Telegraph Ave, Suite A
Oakland, CA 94609
At the corner of Telegraph and 44th.

Here is the chronicle article if you are interested in reading it:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/16/BAGGPE8FRD1.DTL&hw=dublin+police+shooting&sn=001&sc=1000 <http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/16/BAGGPE8FRD1.DTL&hw=dublin+police+shooting&sn=001&sc=1000>

Hun Kim
Executive Director
Korean Community Center of the East Bay
4390 Telegraph Ave. Suite A
Oakland, CA 94609
p) 510-547-2662
f) 510-547-3258