Michael Sungman Cho, a UCLA alumnus, was shot and killed by police officers while holding a tire iron outside a liquor store in La Habra, a city in Orange County, on Dec. 31.
Local authorities announced that Cho’s death is under investigation, but as friends and family mourn the loss of the 25-year-old, an art student who graduated in 2005, they have started a petition to begin a federal investigation into the incident, accusing officers of using excessive force.
Dung Jun, a UCLA alumnus who graduated in 2004, was classmates with Cho and said he remembers his friend as a considerate and kind person who was appreciative of all types of art.
Jun said he last talked to Cho about eight months ago when Cho called him about advice on applying to graduate school. He said his first choice was Yale.
He said as a student, Cho explored all different types of art as part of UCLA’s interdisciplinary approach, but his most recent passion was in ceramics.
“He went to Korea for a while to study their traditional style,” Jun said.
Jun said he will remember his friend as someone who was always offering help and looking out for other people.
He said he remembers when Cho went to UCLA, he kept a drum kit in the temporary art building on Kinross Avenue.
Jun said there was very little room for students and after hours Cho would practice the drums in the building. But when he saw other people come in to work, he packed up his entire kit and moved rooms so as not to bother other people.
Jason Chi went to high school with Cho and knew him for eight years. He attended the vigil that was held in Cho’s honor last week.
He said the easygoing and tame person he knew would not have been involved in such an incident.
“When I got wind of the news, it didn’t all make sense,” he said.
He added that Cho was intelligent and it was inaccurate to characterize him based on the event as careless.
“It’s stupid for (people) to come to conclusions like that,” he said. “People make mistakes, but you don’t deserve to get shot over it.”
At a vigil, Chi said he talked to many people who believed the police’s reaction was excessive.
“They all felt that this was way over and above what they should have done,” he said.
Members of the Korean-American community are upset about the shooting and what they say is the subsequent lack of information.
“At the moment, most of the Korean-American community are getting angry,” said John Ahn, president of the Korean-American Federation of Orange County, a community group.
Police released few details about Cho’s death until Jan. 4, when La Habra Police Chief Dennis Kies met with members of the Korean-American Federation.
Officers had responded to two calls from the same person about vehicles in a shopping center allegedly being vandalized and the second call listed Cho as the suspect, according to the Orange County Register.
Two officers who arrived at the shopping center, now on administrative leave, saw Cho holding a tire iron and ordered him to put it down.
Investigators said the officers saw Cho turn and walk from them twice and during the second time, he made a motion that appeared to attack an officer, who shot him. After that, the second officer used his gun.
Ahn said footage and video stills taken from the parking lot has led many community members, himself included, to call the police reaction excessive and unnecessary.
“It was so obvious … he is by himself,” he said. “They shouldn’t have shot him. They overreacted.”
Ahn said community members have been lobbying officials to conduct a fair and speedy investigation.
“I believe he was innocent. He didn’t deserve a shooting death like that,” he said.
The Orange County Register also reported that in 2006, Cho pled guilty to driving under the influence and was sentenced to three years of probation.
Cho’s funeral is scheduled for Jan. 12.