Monday, July 17, 2006

OAKLAND: No suspects in fatal shooting of [Cambodian-American] bystander

Simone Sebastian
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, July 17, 2006


Police have not identified a suspect in the West Oakland gunbattle that killed a 58-year-old woman who was caught in the cross fire. Investigators questioned a man suspected of being involved in Friday's shooting, but the interrogation did not lead to an arrest, Oakland police Lt. Harry Hu said Sunday.

A stray bullet struck Lath La -- who fled Cambodia in 1988 to escape violence there -- in the head as she stepped out of a friend's van near the corner of Eighth and Adeline streets about 8:40 p.m., police said. She died at the scene.

"She is an innocent person and a good person," Lisa Om, La's daughter-in-law, said Sunday. "She go there to see her friend. As soon as she got out of the car, she got hit on her head."

La had spent the day visiting her ailing 85-year-old father in San Jose, Om said. A friend later picked up La at her apartment in Oakland's Fruitvale district, and they rode together to visit another friend in West Oakland.

La's friend was driving the van and was not hurt in the incident, which was Oakland's 73rd homicide this year. An autopsy will be conducted today or Tuesday, according to the Alameda County coroner's office.

La was recently widowed and had three sons and three daughters. Her youngest child is 15.

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