USA TODAY International Edition
Suspect charged; victim hailed as hero
Murder and attempted murder charges were filed Tuesday in California against a man who officials said opened fire on Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church members, an attack federal authorities are investigating as a hate crime.
David Chou, 68, of Las Vegas, was armed with handguns and Molotov cocktails in the shooting, authorities said. Churchgoers subdued and hogtied him at the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods on Sunday after he fa
tally shot one congregant and wounded five others at an afternoon luncheon, officials in Orange County said Monday.
John Cheng, 52, was killed in the attack when he charged the gunman and tried to disarm him.
Chou was booked on murder and attempted murder charges in what Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes called a “politically motivated hate incident.”
A federal hate crime investigation was opened, said Kristi Johnson, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. The suspect allegedly targeted the church, which hosted the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church congregation, because of political grievances over tensions between China and Taiwan, Barnes said.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Tuesday that his office is charging Chou with 10 different counts, including first- degree murder with enhancements of lying in wait and for personal use of a firearm; five counts of attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation; and four counts of possession of four destructive devices with the intent to kill or to harm.
Chou was being held on $ 1 million bail, according to court records. It was unclear whether he had an attorney.
Spitzer said the “lying in wait” enhancement on the murder charge comes as a result of Chou attempting to conceal himself within the congregation before the shooting.
“He did everything he could to fit in, to make himself one of them,” Spitzer said. “We typically think of the person who hides in the bushes. ... This case is about the person concealing themselves in plain view.”
Spitzer did not apply a hate crime enhancement to the charges.
“While there is very strong evidence right now that this was motivated by hate, we want to make sure we have put together all the evidence that confirms that theory of the case,” Spitzer said.
Barnes called Cheng’s heroism in attempting to stop the gunman “a meeting of good versus evil.” About 50 people were inside the church for a luncheon after morning services when the shooting began.
“The majority of the people in attendance were elderly, and they acted spontaneously, heroically,” Barnes said Monday. “If not for their quick action, the way that this individual set up that environment to kill many more people, there would have been many, many more lives lost if not for the concerted effort of the members of that church.”
After the gunman arrived at the church, he tried to secure the doors with chains, nails and super glue before opening fire, police said. The gunman was armed with two pistols legally purchased in Nevada, and police found several bags with magazines of ammunition and Molotov cocktails in the church, Barnes said.
Cheng charged the gunman, which allowed others to intervene to stop the shooting. A pastor hit the gunman on the head with a chair, and parishioners hogtied him with electrical cords. He was still tied when police arrived.
Barnes said Cheng’s action probably saved the lives “of upwards of dozens of people.”
Cheng was pronounced dead on the scene. Four men ages 66 to 92 and an 86- year- old woman were injured in the shooting.
A husband and father of two, Cheng had a growing memorial in his honor outside his medical practice in nearby Aliso Viejo.
“They’re devastated,” South Coast Medical Group Executive Director Johanna Gherardini told KABC- TV of Cheng’s family. “He was their man.”
Gherardini told the TV station Cheng practiced martial arts and was an advocate for people learning self- defense. “He was a protector, and that’s exactly what he did,” Gherardini said.
A biography page for Cheng on his practice’s website says his father was also a physician. He grew up in a small town in Texas and studied at Texas Tech School of Medicine before his residency at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Authorities said Chou, who had been living in Nevada, did not have any known ties to the church or its congregants.
Louis Huang, director- general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, told Taiwan’s Central News Agency that his office obtained information showing Chou was born in Taiwan in 1953. Barnes said Chou had been living in the USA “for many years.”
Spitzer said Chou’s family apparently was among many forcibly removed from China to Taiwan after 1948. The people from China who settled in Taiwan during that era are known in Mandarin as “waishengren,” or those “born outside.”
Barnes said investigators found handwritten notes in Chou’s car supporting their belief that hatred of Taiwan fueled the attack. “I believe his hatred of Taiwan manifested when he was residing there in previous years, possibly in his youth,” Barnes said.
Tensions between China and Taiwan are the highest in decades. Beijing stepped up its military presence by flying fighter jets toward the self- governing island. China has not ruled out force to reunify with Taiwan, which split from the mainland during a 1949 civil war.
Taiwan’s chief representative in the U. S., Bi- khim Hsiao, said she was “shocked and saddened” by the shooting. “I join the families of the victims and Taiwanese American communities in grief and pray for the speedy recovery of the wounded survivors,” she tweeted Sunday.
Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said China’s government has “consistently condemned incidents of violence. We express our condolences to the victims and sincere sympathy to the bereaved families and the injured.”