Victims formally ID’d in quadruple murder-suicide

SAN JOSE » The four people shot to death by their relative’s husband in what police called a quadruple murder-suicide late Sunday have been formally named by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner- Coroner’s Office.

The victims were identified as Le Thuy Hoang, 51, of Milpitas; and San Jose residents Phung Ngoc Hoang, 48, Thanh Hoa Hoang, 23, and Thi Que Pham, 42.

All of the victims were related to the wife of the shooter, 66-year-old Chi Dinh Ta of San Jose, whose home on Habbitts Court was the site of what stands as one of the deadliest shootings in the city’s history.

According to San Jose police, Ta shot the victims around 8:40 p.m. Sunday and eventually shot and killed himself. Two of the victims, Le Thuy Hoang and Phung Ngoc Hoang, were still alive when they were rescued by officers and rushed to a local hospital, where they died from their wounds, law enforcement sources told this news organization.

Thanh Hoa Hoang was found dead inside the kitchen when police stormed the home early Monday — a few hours after the initial 911 call — and Pham was found dead inside a bedroom, sources said. Ta was found in a side yard dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Ta’s wife, daughter and niece were able to escape the home after the gunfire began. Ta’s wife jumped a fence and hid in a next door neighbor’s bedroom, according to the neigh

bor.

Attempts to reach Ta’s wife and daughter were unsuccessful. There is little information publicly available about the victims who died.

When the gunfire erupted following a loud argument that was overheard by at least one neighbor, San Jose Police Department patrol officers rushed to the home near the county fairgrounds, soon followed by the SJPD Metro special-enforcement team and the Violent Crimes Enforcement Team, both of which were in the field for the weekend.

Metro Sgt. Mike O’Neil, leading officers Julien Taylor, Kasey Padia, John Marshall and Carlos Garibay, and VCET Sgt. Ronnie Lopez, leading officers Jared Yuen, Larry Situ, Joe Sciarrillo and Marco Mercado, were among those who took part in a rescue mission to give Le Thuy Hoang and Phung Ngoc Hoang a chance at survival.

As officers arrived at the scene, Ta’s wife told them, “My kids are still in the house!” leading them to presume they were dealing with an armed suspect and a hostage situation, O’Neil recalled.

For a short stretch of time, the officers could see through the front door, which was open, and saw at least two people bleeding and lying prone on the floor of the home. They initially presumed the people had died, but Garibay, who was keeping watch on the house with binoculars, saw a sign of life.

“He told us there’s a victim near the front door, and appears to be waving an arm,” Lopez said.

The officers’ description of the victim, matched against the formal identities released Thursday, indicate that it was Le Thuy Hoang. The two sergeants quickly hatched a plan to rescue her, and O’Neil requested that the department’s Bearcat armored vehicle be driven to the scene, and backed into the court to both provide cover for officers and be in position to quickly move the victims.

“At that time we had no idea about the location of the suspect,” O’Neil said. “Our mission was to go in and rescue the victims, and get out.”

The sergeant, with several officers fanning out to provide eyes and protection, was among the officers who walked past the front door, moving swiftly but methodically in case they encountered the gunman. As they entered, they were suddenly alerted by one of the officers on lookout duty that they spotted another victim who appeared to be still alive, and now believed to have been Phung Ngoc Hoang.

“We’re getting both of them,” O’Neil said into his radio.

In seconds, O’Neil, covered by other officers, got a hold of the woman near the door, and carried her out to the Bearcat, and said she looked to be critically injured.

Soon after, the sergeant and other officers went back in to get Phung Ngoc Hoang. But he was lying in a hallway that was obscured at the end, and they still had not seen the gunman. They lobbed in a flashbang grenade to distract anyone who might be lying in wait, and O’Neil and Lopez grabbed him and pulled him out to the Bearcat.

“I need hands,” O’Neil shouted, to get help carrying the injured man to safety.

With both victims loaded in the armored truck, the Bearcat sped away from the scene to waiting ambulances. O’Neil said he thought the male victim seemed to be conscious and alert, and was dismayed to learn later that he had died.

By then, the MERGE unit — San Jose’s version of SWAT — arrived. After hours of trying to contact the suspect, around 1 a.m., officers saw smoke coming from the home, and with two people still unaccounted for, saw that the window to rescue potential survivors might be closing. So they formed two teams to enter the home from the front and rear.

It was about 1:20 a.m. when they made their way in, and found Ta and the other two victims. The smoke had been coming from a stove inside the house.

A man whose wife is Ta’s cousin told this news organization earlier this week that the slayings may have been motivated by simmering tension and resentment over how Ta’s wife was able to sponsor relatives in Vietnam for a U.S. visa, and he was limited from doing the same because of his criminal record. Police have made any comments on Ta’s motive.

According to the relative, the slain family members had recently immigrated to the United States from Vietnam.

Ta served two years in state prison for three 1988 felony convictions in Orange County for seconddegree robbery, attempted second-degree robbery and criminal conspiracy. His criminal history in Santa Clara County — where he believed to have lived since the 1990s — consists only of a misdemeanor DUI conviction that was later expunged.

The felony conviction prohibited Ta from owning or possessing firearms or ammunition. Police said that the black Springfield XD 9mm semiautomatic handgun Ta used in the massacre was reported stolen in Tucson, Arizona, in 2017. Investigators have not determined how and where Ta obtained the weapon.