Store owner dies after fall during Sunset robbery.
By Alison Soltau | Staff Writer
Published on Thursday, June 17, 2004
URL: http://www.examiner.com/article/index.cfm/i/061704n_robbery
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Police are investigating a homicide involving an elderly video store owner who was robbed and assaulted last week and died within days of the incident.
Two bandits armed with a handgun robbed Sunset District businessman Kai Hau Chung, 63, last Thursday around 9:10 a.m., police said.
The suspects stormed his Video Galaxy store on the 3900 block of Noriega Street and demanded that he hand over his wallet, according to police spokesman Dewayne Tully.
Chung at first complied, but as the thieves were leaving the store, he tried to stop them, Tully said.
One of the men pushed him, causing the retailer to strike his head against a video display. He then collapsed to the ground and started bleeding profusely.
A store employee summoned help, but Chung died within days at San Francisco General Hospital, Tully said.
The exact cause of death is still being determined.
The two suspects were described as black men, between 35 and 40-years-old, wearing dark clothes, according to Tully, adding that one of them had on a black knit cap.
The incident, which police said brings The City's homicide rate to 45 this year, has stunned neighboring retailers in the small shopping strip.
Jim Mitchell, who washes the video store windows, described Chung, who is married with a daughter, as "a really warm guy."
He said Chung spoke little English but endeared himself to his neighboring retailers by doing thoughtful things, such as holding another stores' early-morning baked goods deliveries until their shop opened.
"He was always smiling and happy and enjoying life. He really had a place in this community," Mitchell said. "All the elderly people around here would come and get their Chinese newspaper from him, and now they come to the store and look at it in shock."
The shop was locked on Wednesday with a sign saying it was closed due to a family emergency.
"I've been so distraught about it," Mitchell added. "Now everyone's scared around here. This neighborhood is always talked about in the newspaper as being the safest place to have families, but it's breaking down."
John Yee, who works at nearby Dean's Deli, said the delicatessen had installed security cameras as a result of what had happened to Chung.
Anyone with information about Chung's death is asked to call Homicide Inspector Ed Wynkoop at 553-1145.
