Fight by rival gangs kills man in Lowell

19-year-old succumbs in his brother's arms

By Maria Cramer
Boston Globe Staff (Mass., USA)
August 15, 2006

LOWELL -- Samnang Oth did not plan to stay at the birthday party for long.

He promised his family he would be at his friend's Royal Street house for only a couple of hours and then he would return home to Chelsea, his older sister, Sina Oth, said yesterday.

But he never returned. On Saturday night, members of two rival gangs, the Bloods and the Asian Boyz, also went to the multi-family house on Royal Street, police said.

Police said that a fight broke out and that in the chaos 14-year-old Billeoum Phan of Lowell, who police said was an associate of the Bloods, fired a gun into a crowd that included members of the Asian Boyz.

One bullet struck Oth, 21, in the chest, puncturing his lung, Sina Oth said. He died in his brother's arms, she said. It was Lowell's ninth homicide of the year, the most since the mid-1990s.

``His life was just starting," Sina Oth, 24, said yesterday afternoon as she stood outside Lowell District Court, where Phan was arraigned on charges of murder and illegal possession of a firearm.

``I don't think it's right," she said, her voice cracking. Her brother ``doesn't deserve this," she said.

Phan was ordered held without bail after a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. His lawyer said Phan denies firing the gun.

Gang activity has been a longtime problem in Lowell, a city of about 105,000 where at least 30,000 to 35,000 of the residents are of Southeast Asian descent, said Vong Ros, director of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association. Many gang members are teenagers whose parents often work two to three jobs and are too busy to supervise their children, Ros said.

The Asian Boyz and the Bloods are ``predominantly Southeast Asian," said Deputy Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee of the Lowell Police Department.

``I don't think kids fully understand the actions that they take, and the way they solve problems is with violence," Ros said. ``We don't know what to do."

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said that three of the nine slayings in Lowell have been gang-related, but that none appeared to be connected. Arrests were made in those three, she said.

``What we would be concerned about is if all nine of these were gang-related and they were a series of retaliations," Coakley said.

She also said gang activity was much more prevalent in the early 1990s. Since then, police have managed to suppress gang activity by tracking parole violators. Leaders in the Asian community have learned how to recognize teenagers who might join gangs, she said.

``You're never going to completely eradicate [gangs], but it's been kept under control," Coakley said.

Sina Oth said her brother had nothing to do with gangs and had no known enemies, though he had friends in the Asian Boyz.

But according to court documents and a police report of the shooting, Oth was a member of the Asian Boyz and Phan was a member of the Bloods.

The fight on Royal Street began late Saturday night when members of the Asian Boyz, who were at the birthday party on the second floor of the house, went outside, according to court documents. As they gathered outside, the members began throwing bottles and other objects through the windows of the first floor, where Phan and members of the Bloods were visiting friends.

That is when Phan fired a gun through one of the living room windows and the front bedroom window, court documents said. One person inside the house called 911. When police arrived, they found Oth's distraught 16-year-old brother, who told an officer that Oth had been shot. Officers found Oth in the backyard, lying near the grill. He was taken to Lowell General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Oth would have turned 22 next Tuesday, Sina Oth said yesterday. Oth, whose family is from Cambodia, was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, where his family fled from the Khmer Rouge.

Samnang did not have a job, but spent most of his time watching his two nieces, whom he often took swimming to Houghton's Pond in Milton, his sister said.

When he was not baby-sitting, he liked to play basketball or hang out with his friends at the family home and play video games. ``Everyone loves him," Sina Oth said.

Sina Oth planned on getting married next month and was going take her brother and other siblings on the honeymoon.

``Now it's got to be canceled, because it's not going to be the same," she said. ``Nothing is going to be the same."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.