POLICE BRIEFS

Huntington Beach detectives were still searching Wednesday for the

culprit or culprits responsible for defacing two religious centers last

week.

Lt. Luis Ochoa of the Huntington Beach Police Department said that

between the evening of April 2 and the morning of April 3, someone

vandalized the Hebrew Academy at 14401 Willow St.

Scrawlings on windows and doors of the center included phrases such as

“Religion is a Lie,” the number 666, as well as profanity, police said.

A similar act of malicious mischief and hate crime was also reported

at the nearby Seventh-day Adventist Church at 14632 Willow St. in

Westminster.

Ochoa added that it is possible that the same suspect or suspects are

responsible for both incidents.

The Hebrew Academy’s Rabbi Moishe Engel said most of the vandalism

occurred at the Seventh-day Adventist Church across the street, with only

two or three scrawlings at the school.

Police are continuing their investigation into the matter.

Suspect in ’97 shooting nabbed

Huntington Beach detectives have tracked down a suspect in a 1997

shooting that claimed the life of a teenager.

After a four-year investigation, officers and detectives took Los

Angeles resident Peter Park, a 23-year-old laborer, into custody after

receiving a tip that he was in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles.

Lt. Bruce Kelly of the Huntington Beach Police Department said Park

was initially cited as a suspect in the 1997 murder of then 17-year-old

Yujung Yang Kong, a Downey student, who was shot to death outside a party

in the 16000 block of Lynn Street on May 6 of that year.

Kelly said the shooting was apparently the result of an ongoing

dispute between rival gangs, the Last Generation Korean Killers, in which

Park was allegedly a member, and the Korean Pride, which Kong belonged

to.

Police took Park into custody without incident at about 7:51 p.m.

April 4, booking him at the city’s jail with bail set at $1 million.

His arraignment in the Orange County Superior Court’s West Justice

Center was originally set for April 5, but was continued to April 20,

court officials said.