Attack on Vietnamese Immigrant Called a Hate Crime

WESTMINSTER —  In what police are labeling a hate crime, a 51-year-old man was assaulted just steps from his front door Saturday evening by a man wielding a 4-foot-long stick and yelling slurs against Vietnamese immigrants.

Police arrested Juan Mendoza Jimenez, 26, of Westminster. He was booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of assault and of committing a hate crime and was being held Sunday on $50,000 bail.

Police said the victim and his alleged assailant were residents of the same apartment complex on Golden Nugget Circle.

The victim, Tuong Phan, suffered minor cuts to his right forearm and was treated at Huntington Beach Medical Center following the 8 p.m. incident.

A shaken Phan and his family spent Sunday morning looking through the newspapers for a place to move to and wondering why such violence had struck.

“We’re friendly to everyone,” said Phan’s son, Ngoc. “It was like an earthquake last night.”

In the eight years since the family immigrated to the United States from Vietnam, they’ve never encountered any problems like this, said the victim’s daughter, Lieu Phan. Now her mother is frightened to walk outside the apartment where they have lived for six months.

“We’re scared,” she said. “We’re going to move.”

Family members said Phan, who is disabled, had stepped outside with his 9-year-old daughter to get some fresh air and to smoke a cigarette when the confrontation occurred.

Lieu Phan said the attacker, who was with three other men, grabbed her father’s cigarette and started cursing about “all Vietnamese people.”

Phan and his daughter rushed back to their apartment, but were followed by the assailant, said police and family members. As Phan tried to get inside his home, he was struck in the forearm by the stick, Lieu Phan said.

“My dad tried to block it,” she said. “My dad didn’t want to fight with him.”

Police said the victim appeared to have been selected at random because of his race.

Lt. Mike Schliskey said the apartment complex off Golden West Street is about evenly split between Vietnamese and Latino residents.

He was not aware of any other hate crimes ever reported at the complex.