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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/nov/14/bad-timing-for-gunman/
Robber in restaurant shooting lived in halfway house
Attorney remembers gunman as "respectful"
November 15, 2007
Denver defense attorney Jeffrey A. Trujillo remembers his teenage client as
a "very mild-mannered, nice kid" who was "respectful" when Trujillo visited
him in jail.
And although Phuong V. Dang was in a violent street gang facing multiple
felonies before he was old enough to vote, Trujillo was surprised to learn
Thursday that Denver police shot his one-time client in the midst of what
appears to be a botched armed robbery.
"He was 16 and he got a huge sentence," Trujillo said Thursday of the 1998
case. "You're just a child and you get sent to prison for the better part of
your life, and you get another chance, and you fall back on your old ways."
Now 26, Dang was wearing a bandanna over his mouth and nose Wednesday when
he entered the Ha Noi Vietnamese restaurant on South Federal Boulevard
shortly after noon, according to police. He pointed a black shotgun at
restaurantgoers, and pushed a black duffle bag toward them.
Among the lunch crowd, however, was Denver police detective Jesse Avendano
and Sgt. John Pinder. Dressed in plainclothes but on-duty, the officers
exchanged gunfire with Dang, who is now in critical condition at Denver
Health Medical Center.
One of the policemen and three others were also injured in the gunfire.
Dang was 16 when he was sent to the Buena Vista Correctional Facility for
robbery, menacing and two counts of assault, said Katherine Sanguinetti,
spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.
After he was transferred to the Fremont Correctional Facility, time was
tacked onto his sentence because he was found with contraband, she said.
He was at the prison in Sterling until October of last year when he was
transferred to Correctional Management Inc.'s halfway house at 3955 Ulster
St. in Denver.
Mike Koob, vice president of operations for CMI, said residents at the
Ulster Street facility typically serve six to nine months before being let
out on parole or transitioning to intensive supervised parole.
The residents are required to spend at least eight hours a day in the 60-bed
capacity facility, but can sign out for work, treatment or community
service, Koob said.
Pending new charges, Dang would have finished his sentence and mandatory
parole time on Jan. 5, 2017.
Above at least six bullet holes in the plate-glass window, the orange and
blue neon sign still flashed "Open", but the yellow crime scene tape around
the Ha Noi Restaurant indicated otherwise Thursday.
As Denver Police wound down the crime scene investigation that was projected
to conclude by Thursday afternoon, Sang Tran stood in front of his
tailor-cum-video rental shop, shoved his hands in his pockets, squinted into
the noon sun and said, "It was scary, man, scary, y'know?"
Tran, whose shop is directly north of the Ha Noi, was trapped there for
several hours after accused gunman Phuong V. Dang tried to rob it, only to
find himself in a firefight with the two undercover police officers who were
there for lunch.
"I couldn't get out of my place until 3, y'know," said Tran, a three-year
occupant of the strip mall, who, like many of the Ha Noi's business
neighbors, was surprised by the carnage.
"It was the first time in my whole life I ever heard something so loud like
that," said Ramin Kamal, a clerk at Rosie's Cigarettes Store. "At first I
thought there was a car accident out there."
But Kim Oanh Nguyen was under no such illusions. The stylist at Image Hair
Design knew there was a shooting when a customer ran into her store and told
her. With salon owner Thao Nguyen serving as her translator, Kim also
remembered, how "Four people ran out of the restaurant and hid in the
parking lot, ducking behind cars."
When one of them came toward the shop, Kim asked him what happened and he
told her, "A robber wearing a mask holding a long gun was standing in front
of the restaurant."
Still "shivering," Nguyen recalled seeing the "robber laying down ... his
pants were cut off and blood was running down his legs.but he still was
wearing the ski mask."
Nguyen recalled that even though the man lay face down, she thought he was
Asian "because he wasn't hairy" and "his tattoos looked Asian."
Remembering the scene of the bloody man being carried away, she said, "I'm
still afraid."
Her boss said she didn't know the restaurant owners that well, but that they
were customers of her salon and she would often go to the restaurant to take
out food. In her five years as owner of Image Hair, Thao Nguyen said there
had never been any violence along the strip mall.
Thao Nguyen, who was not in her shop at the time, said, "It could have been
any one of us - we have a back door, too. If he felt like coming in here, it
could have been one of us shot."
She added that "We have a security door and that will always stay locked
from now."
As she went back to attend to a customer, the owner that the shooting "was
the talk topic of the day. It'll probably the topic for a lot of days."
Robber in restaurant shooting lived in halfway house
Attorney remembers gunman as "respectful"
November 15, 2007
Denver defense attorney Jeffrey A. Trujillo remembers his teenage client as
a "very mild-mannered, nice kid" who was "respectful" when Trujillo visited
him in jail.
And although Phuong V. Dang was in a violent street gang facing multiple
felonies before he was old enough to vote, Trujillo was surprised to learn
Thursday that Denver police shot his one-time client in the midst of what
appears to be a botched armed robbery.
"He was 16 and he got a huge sentence," Trujillo said Thursday of the 1998
case. "You're just a child and you get sent to prison for the better part of
your life, and you get another chance, and you fall back on your old ways."
Now 26, Dang was wearing a bandanna over his mouth and nose Wednesday when
he entered the Ha Noi Vietnamese restaurant on South Federal Boulevard
shortly after noon, according to police. He pointed a black shotgun at
restaurantgoers, and pushed a black duffle bag toward them.
Among the lunch crowd, however, was Denver police detective Jesse Avendano
and Sgt. John Pinder. Dressed in plainclothes but on-duty, the officers
exchanged gunfire with Dang, who is now in critical condition at Denver
Health Medical Center.
One of the policemen and three others were also injured in the gunfire.
Dang was 16 when he was sent to the Buena Vista Correctional Facility for
robbery, menacing and two counts of assault, said Katherine Sanguinetti,
spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.
After he was transferred to the Fremont Correctional Facility, time was
tacked onto his sentence because he was found with contraband, she said.
He was at the prison in Sterling until October of last year when he was
transferred to Correctional Management Inc.'s halfway house at 3955 Ulster
St. in Denver.
Mike Koob, vice president of operations for CMI, said residents at the
Ulster Street facility typically serve six to nine months before being let
out on parole or transitioning to intensive supervised parole.
The residents are required to spend at least eight hours a day in the 60-bed
capacity facility, but can sign out for work, treatment or community
service, Koob said.
Pending new charges, Dang would have finished his sentence and mandatory
parole time on Jan. 5, 2017.
Above at least six bullet holes in the plate-glass window, the orange and
blue neon sign still flashed "Open", but the yellow crime scene tape around
the Ha Noi Restaurant indicated otherwise Thursday.
As Denver Police wound down the crime scene investigation that was projected
to conclude by Thursday afternoon, Sang Tran stood in front of his
tailor-cum-video rental shop, shoved his hands in his pockets, squinted into
the noon sun and said, "It was scary, man, scary, y'know?"
Tran, whose shop is directly north of the Ha Noi, was trapped there for
several hours after accused gunman Phuong V. Dang tried to rob it, only to
find himself in a firefight with the two undercover police officers who were
there for lunch.
"I couldn't get out of my place until 3, y'know," said Tran, a three-year
occupant of the strip mall, who, like many of the Ha Noi's business
neighbors, was surprised by the carnage.
"It was the first time in my whole life I ever heard something so loud like
that," said Ramin Kamal, a clerk at Rosie's Cigarettes Store. "At first I
thought there was a car accident out there."
But Kim Oanh Nguyen was under no such illusions. The stylist at Image Hair
Design knew there was a shooting when a customer ran into her store and told
her. With salon owner Thao Nguyen serving as her translator, Kim also
remembered, how "Four people ran out of the restaurant and hid in the
parking lot, ducking behind cars."
When one of them came toward the shop, Kim asked him what happened and he
told her, "A robber wearing a mask holding a long gun was standing in front
of the restaurant."
Still "shivering," Nguyen recalled seeing the "robber laying down ... his
pants were cut off and blood was running down his legs.but he still was
wearing the ski mask."
Nguyen recalled that even though the man lay face down, she thought he was
Asian "because he wasn't hairy" and "his tattoos looked Asian."
Remembering the scene of the bloody man being carried away, she said, "I'm
still afraid."
Her boss said she didn't know the restaurant owners that well, but that they
were customers of her salon and she would often go to the restaurant to take
out food. In her five years as owner of Image Hair, Thao Nguyen said there
had never been any violence along the strip mall.
Thao Nguyen, who was not in her shop at the time, said, "It could have been
any one of us - we have a back door, too. If he felt like coming in here, it
could have been one of us shot."
She added that "We have a security door and that will always stay locked
from now."
As she went back to attend to a customer, the owner that the shooting "was
the talk topic of the day. It'll probably the topic for a lot of days."
