Probe in Santa Ana nightclub beating death stalled
A picture of Kim Pham is among the items placed at a make-shift memorial Friday, Jan. 24, 2014, for Pham, who was beaten to death in front of The Crosby nightclub in Santa Ana, Calif. Two women were arrested and a third "person of interest" is being sought by police. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Bruce Chambers) MAGS OUT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT
Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas, left, holds a news conference to announce that a second suspect had been arrested for investigation of murder in the case of beating victim Annie "Kim" Pham, Friday, Jan. 24, 2014 in Santa Ana, Calif., as Santa Ana mayor Miguel Pulido, center, and Santa Ana Councilman Vincent Sarmiento look on. Projected on the screen behind Rojas are images of Vanesa Zavala, left, who has been arrested in the case, and an unidentified woman, right, that police are looking for as a "person of interest" in the case. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Bruce Chambers) MAGS OUT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT
SANTA ANA, Calif. >> Police detectives are having trouble unraveling a nightclub brawl that left a 23-year-old woman dead because they can’t identify many of the victim’s friends and others won’t talk to them.
Investigators working the death of Kim Pham, 23, outside a Santa Ana hot spot have only identified one of the eight friends who were with Pham, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
Her ex-boyfriend — who may have tried to help her — hasn’t come forward and the one female friend that police have found won’t talk, the paper reported.
Two women have been arrested in Pham’s death and police are seeking a third woman.
Distrust of the government and of police runs deep in Orange County’s Vietnamese-American community, where many residents are refugees or the children and grandchildren of refugees who fled to the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Although many younger Vietnamese-Americans are thoroughly Westernized, they could be avoiding police on the advice of their parents or out of respect for their concerns, said Police Commander Tim Vu, the highest-ranking Vietnamese-American law enforcement officer in Orange County.
"People worry that there will be retaliation," Vu told the Times. "They don’t know the court system and are intimidated by it."
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Some may believe they could be retaliated against as witnesses — a belief that his hard to counter, Vu said.
Cell phone video shows the Chapman University graduate and aspiring writer getting beaten and stomped as a crowd gathers around. A reward for information in the case stands at $11,000.
"We need to reassure immigrants or potential witnesses that it’s not about them," he said. "It’s about all the evidence and all other witnesses."
Pham, of Huntington Beach, was taken off life support last week.
Civic leaders are now reaching out to witnesses through the Vietnamese-language media, stressing they will be treated with respect if they come forward and can meet privately with the police chief or even the mayor.
"Their identities will be protected if they wish," said Ken Nguyen, a volunteer who acts as Santa Ana’s liaison to the local Vietnamese community. "These are the things we offered the youths, and so far, they are quiet."
