SHERIFF: HATRED INSPIRED ATTACK
Shooting: Parishioner helped stop gunman; writings showed enmity toward Taiwanese
Sometime after the prayer service ended and before the luncheon began Sunday, authorities believe David Wenwei Chou entered the dining hall at a Laguna Woods church carrying a lifelong hatred of Taiwanese people and enough weaponry to kill dozens.
Chou allegedly used padlocks, super glue and nails to seal most of the dining hall doors. He also dropped two bags — one carrying magazines of ammunition and another carrying four devices described as Molotov cocktails — behind a black curtain, authorities said.
And at some point in the day, witnesses and authorities add, Chou did something else: He mingled with the
people he would soon try to kill.
Later, as the lunch was ending, authorities say Chou, 68, used a semi-automatic pistol to shoot and kill one man and injure four others.
They are describing Chou’s alleged act as a potential hate crime, among other things. Authorities found notes in his car suggesting long-term hatred of Taiwanese people and their government.
They also are describing the man Chou allegedly killed, Dr. John Cheng, of Laguna Niguel, as a hero.
“Dr. Cheng charged the suspect and attempted to disarm him, which allowed other parishioners to intercede, taking the suspect into custody,” Barnes said.
“Without the actions of Dr. Cheng, there is no doubt there would have been numerous other additional victims.”
Chaos
A photo of the lunchroom taken during the incident, shared with the Register, shows four men and one woman kneeling on a man who appears to be Chou.
Nearby is the body of another man, lying face down, blood pooling on his back.
Pastor Billy Chang, a former leader of the congregation who spent two years in Taiwan and was on hand Sunday to give a guest sermon and enjoy a lunch in his honor, described the hours leading up to that photo as routine — except for the appearance of Chou.
Chang said he first saw Chou during the morning service, around 10:10 a.m., when about 150 people were inside Geneva Presbyterian Church, the house of worship used since 2009 by the congregation of Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian.
“He was wearing a black shirt with a word written on it in white,” Chang said. “Some believe the word on his shirt was ‘Security.’ ”
A receptionist welcomed Chou to the church and, speaking Taiwanese, asked him to fill out a form providing his personal information, Chang said.
But Chou refused, Chang added, claiming he had attended services at the
church twice previously and had already filled out the form.
After that, Chang said, Chou sat in the back of the sanctuary reading a Chinese-language newspaper provided by the church.
Chou sat through the entire service, which ended at around 11:20 a.m., Chang said. Parishioners then saw Chou enter a small back office, where he looked around before leaving the building.
But Chou returned around 12:30 p.m., as the congregation was moving over to the church’s Simpson Hall for the luncheon honoring Chang.
About 140 members went to the lunch to eat and take photos with the pastor. Around 1:20 p.m., some members who were leaving told Chang they saw Chou “applying iron chains” to the doors to secure them.
Though Chou allowed parishioners to exit, he refused to answer when they asked what he was doing, Chang said.
At around that time, a parishioner tried to reenter, saying he’d left something behind, but Chou blocked him. Then another church member saw Chou beginning to hammer nails into two exit doors.
That’s when Chou pulled out a gun — which authorities describe as a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol — and fired a shot into the ceiling.
“Most of the church members thought the sound came from a large balloon popping,” Chang said.
As some in the crowd — many seniors using walkers or canes — began to move away, Cheng rushed the gunman and prevented him from shooting others. And as parishioners fell to the floor, while others made their way to a kitchen exit that Chou had left unsecured, Chang said he believed Cheng was shot three times.
At that point, Chang said, Chou began reloading his gun. But before he could complete that task Chang said he picked up a chair and struck Chou with it, while others soon grabbed Chou’s guns and pinned him to the ground. Later, they hogtied him.
Sheriff’s deputies arrived a few minutes later, broke through the outer doors and arrested Chou. They later found the bags of ammunition and the bombs.
Chang said the violence he witnessed lasted just seconds.
Hate
Barnes did not speculate about what Chou might have done with the extra ammunition and the four incendiary devices, but he did says “dozens” could have been killed without Cheng’s intervention.
Barnes also suggested the motivation for the incident was hate.
Notes found by investigators inside Chou’s car indicated he felt hatred for Taiwanese people and rage over ongoing tension between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China.
Chou, an American citizen who has lived in the United States for many years, most recently in Las Vegas, was born in China and spent part of his childhood in Taiwan, during a period when tensions between the two countries — and their political cultures — ran high.
Barnes said Chou, who worked as a security guard, drove from Las Vegas to Orange County on Saturday and may have picked that congregation because it offered the closest concentration of Taiwanese victims.
“(Chou) specifically targeted the Taiwanese community,” Barnes said. “This church was a representative of the Taiwanese community.”
Cheng was pronounced dead at the scene. The other shooting victims, ranging in age from 66 to 92, are recovering in hospitals and expected to survive.
Chou is in custody in Orange County jail on $1 million bail. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said his office plans to file one count of murder and four counts of attempted murder against
Chou today.
To the murder charge, Spitzer said he would consider adding a sentencing enhancement for lying in wait. That’s because other items found by investigators indicate Chou allegedly planned the attack in advance. That could make Chou eligible for the death penalty or a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Barnes said Chou is married with two children. Chou’s wife lives in Taiwan with one of those children. The location of the other child was not known.
Once charged, Chou will likely appear in Central Jail Court to be arraigned today, when he could offer his plea, although the date of that court appearance could change.
The church shooting, which came a day after a White supremacist opened fire inside a grocery store in a majority Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, drew a massive law enforcement response on Sunday.
Kristi Johnson, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said the agency was working with the District Attorney’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s office to determine if Chou should face a hate crime charge.