Schedule for Bon Pchum Ben at Wat Chas Seattle, WA

Premier screening movie "Lost Loves" in Seattle

“LOST LOVES” USA SCEENING TOUR

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012

in Seattle

SCREENING & DISCUSSION W/ DIRECTOR CHHAY BORA

Seattle-Sihanoukville Sister City Association and Studio Revolt invites you to a public film screening of the highly-acclaimed

“Lost Loves”

(based on a true story)

Produced and directed by Chhay Bora, “Lost Loves”, retells the plight of a young mother under a genocidal regime.

The Cambodia Oscar Selection Committee has submitted Chhay Bora’s Lost Loves to the best foreign-language film category of the Academy Awards, marking the first time in 18 years that the country has sent a film to the Oscars.

$7 per person donation

Seating is limited to 150 people. Get your advance tickets today! Make a donation and present your receipt for admission.

For details visit: www.seasih.org/events.html

1210th Anniversar​y Of the Khmer Empire Celebratio​n, Seattle, Saturday, July 21, 2012

You Are Cordially Invited to the

1210th AnniversaryOf the Khmer Empire

And Pay Tribute to Our Ancestors

Saturday July 21st, 2012

Asian Resources Center

1025 S. King St., Seattle, WA 98104

Program

Morning:

9:00AM Guests Arrive

Exhibit of Khmer Culture and History – All day

10:00AM Religious Ceremony with Bangskol, Alms Offering &

Prayers for Cambodia

Guest Speaker: Kompha Seth, Executive Director,

National Cambodian American Organization, Chicago, IL

Afternoon:

1:00PM – 400PM: Open Public Forum

How Will Cambodia Survive the China's Challenge

Over the US Asia Pivot in the 21st Century?

Moderators: Kim Tung Yap, CAHRAD, Washington, DC &

Tithia Sum, KUC, Olympia, Washington

Evening:

5:00PM – 11:00PM: Gala Dinner

5:00PM: Registration – Social Hour

6:00PM: Opening Program – Dinner Served

Keynote: Mr. Marith Chhang, KAF Executive Vice President

8:00PM: Cultural Show

Keynote Speaker: Thuy Chanthourn, PhD, Archeologist

Royal Academy, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

9:00PM – 11:00PM: Entertainment & Dancing

Live Music by White Lotus Band

Celebration Organized by the Khmer Alliance Foundation (KAF)

Contact: Marith Chhang @ (360)636 3989 kaf_usa@msn.com or

Van Sar @ (425)672 6725 van_sar@msn.com

Cambodian businesses in Seattle endure severe winter storm

Originally published at http://khmr.cn/yp4QuQ

BY BUNTHAY CHEAM

SEATTLE, WA -- A powerful blizzard that has crippled the Seattle area eased up a bit as of Friday. Conditions changed for the better as higher than expected temperatures brought rain instead of snow, making commuting possible once again, albeit cautiously. Some meteorologists were calling

it the worst snowstorm here in 25 years.

Thursday’s conditions were the worst yet as the falling snow turned to icy rain, bringing down trees on top of power lines, clogging sewers with debris and causing floods in some streets. Many businesses and schools in the region shut down outright for fear of being trapped in the elements. SeaTac International Airport grounded flights in response to iced runways, and thousands of homes in the greater Seattle metropolitan area were left without power going into Friday. Governor Chris Gregoire has declared a state of emergency, authorizing help from the federal government.

However, in White Center, the bastion of one of the largest local concentrations of Cambodian Americans, optimism ran strong in the face of the blizzard.

“The last couple days have been tough, but I’m doing okay. Struggling, but it’s getting better, “ said Sam Yin, owner of Sam Way groceries. Yin benefitted from an early evening rush by staying open until 6 p.m. while other grocery stores and shops closed or began shutting down in the early afternoon Thursday.

Mr. Sem [second to left and others wait for their donuts and coffee at Khmer owned, Golden House Bakery located at 9823 15th Ave SW in White Center."

Chia (Jay) Thach, local socialite and owner of White Center Market (formerly New Angkor Market), echoed the same sentiment on Friday. “Business is good today. I opened at 11 a.m. yesterday [Thursday] but it was a ghost town. So after an hour or so, I decided to close shop. Today has been pretty good though.”Several yards away from Sam Way grocery, life continued as if no storm had hit at Golden House Bakery and Coffee Shop, where many locals converge to talk Cambodian politics and catch up on current events.“Doing well, had to get coffee,” said Mr. Sem while getting into a debate about Thai–Cambodian relations as of late.

Although the arrival of rain instead of snow seems to be a development in right direction, Friday evening’s forecast calls for even heavier rainfall, with temperatures ranging in the 40s. Drivers should remain cautious as the city continues to respond to flooded streets and intersections where the snow and the ice has turned into slush, in addition to the hazards of downed trees and power lines.

Bulldozers plow up to 3 inches of snow and ice off the parking lot at Safeway in Roxbury White Center.

SeaTac couple plead guilty to running theft ring

October 31, 2011
By John de Leon
The Seattle Times

A SeaTac couple has pleaded guilty to several charges stemming from an organized theft ring in South King County in which they paid others to steal items, which the defendants later resold.

Sara Kong, 41, and Chanthou Rim, 39, each pleaded guilty last week to six counts of first-degree attempted trafficking in stolen property and one count of first-degree conspiracy to commit organized retail theft. The couple is accused of directing others to steal items from retail stores and reselling some of the items to local markets and sending other goods to Cambodia, which prompted a parallel investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to the charges, Rim and Kong used “thieves to enter retail grocery and other stores to steal merchandise.” Among the thieves was a mother-daughter duo that shoplifted nearly $1,000 worth of items each day, prosecutors said. The mother and daughter told police they did it because they needed money to support their heroin addictions, according to the charges.

Cambodian New Year celebration enjoys some sun [in West Seattle]

Merchants offered a variety of clothing and other items at the Cambodian New Year Festival in White Center April 30. (Kimberly Robinson)

By Patrick Robinson
2011-04-30
West Seattle Herald (Washington, USA)

The Cambodian New Year Festival came back to White Center on April 30 taking place on the block between 15th and 16th s.w. on 98th Street s.w.

Sopha Dahn with the White Center Community Development Association in charge of the event spoke and served as the host for the event. 22 booths offering food, information and neighborhood interaction and goods for sale plus cultural dances, music, poetry and performances and demonstrations rounded out the event.

Included in the program were traditional dances, a banana eating contest, and a kickboxing demonstration.

Cambodian-Americans' protest against Thai invasion in Seattle, Washington

Click here to see the entire no. 1 photo album

Click here to see the entire no. 2 photo album

West Seattle/White Center protest highlights Cambodia/Thailand dispute

February 12, 2011
In West Seattle news, White Center
West Seattle Blog...

You’ve heard a lot about what’s going on in the Middle East – but have you heard about what’s going on in Southeast Asia? A border clash between Cambodia and Thailand is about to come to a head in front of the United Nations, and today Cambodian-Americans came to West Seattle and White Center for a demonstration aimed at bringing it to your attention and demanding the U.S. government get involved. West Seattle Blog/White Center Now contributor Deanie Schwarz noticed the protest, took these photos and talked to spokesperson Sokmakara Hang, who explained that the demonstrators came from all over the state, and came here because this area has the state’s highest concentration of Cambodian-Americans. They stood on corners all around 16th/Roxbury:

Also on hand was Meach Sovannara from the Khmer Post Media Center in Long Beach (Calif.). The dispute is over a border area near the Preah Vihear Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is more than a millennium old. The Cambodian-Americans say the most recent skirmishes killed Cambodian soldiers, and are demanding that the Thai government stop what they call an “invasion.” They want United Nations intervention as well as President Obama and the rest of the international community. According to this story from the Bangkok Post, this issue will be brought to the UN Security Council on Monday, and reportedly Cambodia will claim it’s at war with Thailand. There’s more background on the century-long conflict over the temple in this Jakarta Post story.

Family that lost 4 members in West Seattle shooting needs help

October 27, 2010
West Seattle Blog

Just received from Cara Kroenke at Southwest Youth and Family Services, a little over one month after the quadruple murder-suicide in West Seattle:

I’d like to share with you an experience that I just had. At 11:00 this morning, I met with the surviving members of the family that was massacred in West Seattle. … To summarize, the grandmother of the Phan/Harm family, who lived through the genocidal Khmer Rouge attacks of Cambodia PTSD, went off of her medication that helped her deal with her PTSD and fatally shot five members of her family in West Seattle. Her youngest grandchild, Nivia, age 7, was home from school day with a 101 degree fever and witnessed the killings of her father, two sisters(one of whom was pregnant) and the shooting of her mother,Thyda. Grandmother then tried to shoot Nivia, but she ran out of bullets and while she was reloading, Nivia’s 17 year old brother, Kevin, grabbed Nivia and threw her out the window, he then fled himself. As this was happening, grandfather was coming home and heard the final shots as he opened the door, he saw the grandmother take her own life.

They were here at the agency today because they need help. They need counseling, community, love and financial support.

Please join me in contributing what you can; the family is in desperate need of $1800 to pay for the repairs that their landlord is charging them for the damages. Because most of their furniture was bloodstained, or worse, they need furniture and mattresses. The missed shots destroyed many household items as well, so glasses, pots, pillows, etc. would be greatly appreciated too.

The mother is still healing from her gunshot wounds and cannot work. The surviving family is in great need of emotional support, which they will receive from counselors at SWYFS, but they need the basics taken care of, including the $1800 debt, in order to start the healing process, so please if you can donate any money, do. If you would rather support the family with a Safeway or Albertson’s gift card, they greatly need money for food as well. Or, if you have any gently used household items, they would be appreciated as well.

The Phan/Harm family are currently living in temporary housing, but we are working with them to find permanent housing near the children’s schools.

I was able to spend time with Nivia today and we were able to talk about some of her favorite things; stuffed animals, Barbie, movies and books. She would very much like to read the The Magic Treehouse series and is going to be a cat for Halloween. I looked into her eyes and saw joy there; she is very resilient. She was even able to laugh a bit, but told me she can not sleep because she has nightmares; and wasn’t at school today because when she is able to sleep it is on the floor and that that is very uncomfortable and her mother wanted her to get her rest today.

Please keep her and her family in your prayers or thoughts.

Below is a link where you can make a donation. My goal is to raise/have pledges for the whole $1800 by end of day tomorrow. Please work with me so that this can happen for the family. Feel free to call me with questions, or come by the agency to drop off any donations. If you would like to send in a check, a gift card to the grocery store or a letter of encouragement/support, please mail it to:

SWYFS

Attention: Phan/Harm family support

4555 Delridge Way SW

Seattle, WA 98106

Many thanks for rallying with us for the Phan/Harm Family.

For your records, our tax ID # is:911-17862

Donate here link: http://swyfs.org/support_us/

Angry Asian Grandparent Shooting In Seattle

Grandma Saroeun Sok family photo

Donations to the family may be sent to:
Thyda Luellen Benevolent Account
BECU
P.O. Box 34044
Seattle, WA 98124-1044

October 2, 2010
By Arthur Hu
Asian Week

Chalk up one more angry Asian American shooter, but it wasn’t the first angry old Asian. Not too many people noticed when 69 year old “uncle” John Chong went bananas April 2009 at the Korean Christian Kkottongnae Retreat Camp southeast of Los Angeles. He shot a woman and wounded a man before his next victims fought back and beat him senseless.

On Thursday September 23, Seattle suffered its most horrific shooting in four years as 60 year old much loved Cambodian “grandma” Saroeun Sok came down the stairs dressed in white with an eerie smile and suddenly opened fire on her daughter and family in her West Seattle home. Four were killed as she shot herself, her son-in-law, and two teen grand-daughters.

In Cambodia, Sok took pleasure in dressing up young women and bridesmaids for weddings. She would spend fitting gowns and taking care of hair and makeup. But she became troubled, perhaps during the time of the Killing Fields, and Sok stabbed her sister in a fit of rage. She would rarely speak of those times, but it claimed the lives of two of her children and her parents before she escaped to camps in Thailand and then the Phillipines and Philadelphia with her husband Chhoey Sok, and surviving daughter Thyda Phan.

Now In West Seattle, Sok was the matriarch of a crowded house with 11 people, but she fell into mental illness as Thyda’s second husband left and got custody of her boys. Sok was hospitalized for schuizophrenia and depression, and in previous weeks, she had a phobia about colors and would only wear white. Sok was upset when they were evicted and had to move to a crowded 3 bedroom house. She could not find her things, felt nobody liked her, and thought the television was talking and shooting at her. After she was mugged walking home, she learned to fire a gun, but her husband carefully hid his two handguns from her.

Then on the fateful day, Saroeun Sok again donned white and took one of the guns from its hiding place. Then warned auntie Lisa Sun (28) to go into her room and shut the door as she headed down to hunt down the rest of the family. Granny calmly walked down the stairs to greet her son-in-law Choen Harm (43) who was back from scarce work, and had said “even if they had only a penny among them, if the family was together, it was OK”. She calmly pulled out a gun from her jacket and shot him. Thyda heard a pop and wondered who was playing with firecrackers when 16 year old son Kevin shouted “Mom, grandma’s killed Dad!” as granny shot at Kevin and 7 yr old Nevaeh ducked under a blanket. As teen daughter Jennifer (17) ran down to help her father, she was also shot in the back. The gun jammed, as grandma seemed possessed. A woman would could barely walk was running upstairs like a demon upstairs and nobody could catch her.

Kevin pushed everybody to the downstairs basement. As Thyda called police, granny came down with the other gun and shot her. She was seen running out yelling her mother had gone crazy. Then she ran back inside to help her children, where she was shot two more times trying to take the gun away.

Granny chased the others downstairs to the basement where she stood blocking escape at the sliding door to shoot the children along with Jennifer’s boyfriend Allen Green, 18. Kevin punched out a window where the teens scrambled out, and pulled the little girl out. Then the mortally wounded Jennifer stumbled into the bedroom where granny was shooting. Kevin urged 14 year old Melina to get out, but she stayed at her sister’s side where granny shot through the window to kill little Melina. Kevin later said “She wouldn’t leave her older sister. Her older sister is her best friend” after Kevin had been missed five times.

As officers formed a police line outside the house, granny’s husband shot past into the house. He was just in time to see his wife shoot herself in the head, sadly coming out to say that he was too late.

The next day, when Tony Sun (17) walked through the house after the investigation, all he had to say was “Oh my God” as he surveyed the blood stains where his uncle and cousins were killed. That evening a hastily organized memorial service was held at Khemarak Pothiram Temple. Pink packages with pencils, books and drinks were prepared for their journey into the afterlife. Monks in orange chanted and burned incense. Sitting on rugs under a white tent without shoes, they prayed for forgiveness of grandma Sok, who could not be reborn as a human after killing another. They prayed for the release of the spirits of the others who might later return, perhaps to their own family as a new baby child nephew or niece. Survivor Thyda told reporters “I hope they come back”.

This story is based on news articles by the Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, KIRO-TV and KOMO-TV.

Family: Grandmother in shooting spree battled schizophrenia

Shooting survivor Thy Luellen Phan is comforted by an unidentified girl after a ceremony Friday at the Wat Khemarak Pothiram Buddhist Temple in Seattle. Her mother, Saroeun Phan, shot her, her daughters Molina Phan and Jennifer Harm, and her husband, Choeun Harm, at a West Seattle home Thursday before turning the gun on herself. (Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com)

Shooting survivor Thy Luellen Phan prays during a ceremony at the Wat Khemarak Pothiram Buddhist Temple in Seattle. People gathered at the temple to pray after Thy's mother killed two of her daughters and her husband before taking her own life. Thy was shot four times before the carnage ended. (Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com)

Police say she may have tried to kill everyone in the West Seattle home

Saturday, September 25, 2010
By CASEY MCNERTHNEY
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

It was about 1:30 p.m. Thursday when Saroeun Phan armed herself with a handgun.

"According to one of the witnesses, she did not say a single word when she came out of the bedroom and came downstairs," Assistant Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel said. "Not a single word."

Police say before turning the gun on herself, Phan killed her 14- and 17-year-old granddaughters, Molina Phan and Jennifer Harm; her 43-year-old son-in-law Choeun Harm; and also shot her 42-year-old daughter, Thy Luellen Phan.

"Saroeun Phan has been struggling with schizophrenia and depression for several years and has sought medical attention numerous times," family members said in a statement. "She has been taking medication prescribed to her by physicians.

"It is not certain whether she has been properly taking her medication these past couple of months."

Police say at some point during the Thursday rampage, the 60-year-old armed herself with another gun and fired at least 20 rounds total at the family home in the 9400 block of Southwest Roxbury Street in West Seattle, where members of three related families lived.

It may have been her intention to kill everyone who lived there, police said.

Kevin Harm, a teenage grandson of Saroeun Phan, escaped through a window with two others, including a 7-year-old girl.

It's not clear where the guns came from, and police are trying to track them. Phan didn't have a concealed weapons permit, "but there's no law against owning a gun and keeping it in your house," Pugel said of the 9 mm and .25 caliber pistols. Investigators said the guns were not stolen.

It's unclear what exactly caused Phan to snap Thursday afternoon. Police said they hadn't gone to the house in the roughly six weeks the families lived there, and officers had no prior contact with Phan or those killed.

The only thing close was a parking ticket issued on the block the day before the massacre -- the worst Seattle killing spree since Kyle Huff killed six people, wounded two others and killed himself at a Capitol Hill home in March 2006.

But the parking ticket didn't have any connection to the family or the shooting, Pugel said. Phan's family said the shooting was truly unforeseen.

Leunllen, who was wounded, and Phan's husband were at the Wat Khemarak Pothiram Buddhist temple in South King County on Friday, where other family members and close friends comforted them.

The family is Cambodian, and an attorney said in court documents that Phan's parents and several children were killed in the Cambodian Civil War in the 1970s. Records from a 1994 civil suit indicate that Phan had long suffered from mental illness.

Her sister suffered shrapnel wounds during a bombing at her home; Phan survived the conflict, then settled in the United States.

Investigators were trying to talk to medical professionals who may have treated Phan.

"We're scratching our heads at this one, too," Pugel said Friday afternoon.

Medical records submitted as part of the 16-year-old civil suit portray Phan as a woman in frequent contact with her doctor.

Drawing Social Security disability for reasons unspecified in court documents, Phan visited a doctor almost weekly for years in the mid 1990s. Records show that she had been evaluated by a psychiatrist on several occasions, and was in counseling for depression.

Thursday shooting scene

A 911 call received at 1:31 p.m. Thursday was the first indication there was trouble in the 9400 block of 14th Avenue Southwest, located just north of the map line that separates Seattle from the unincorporated but urban area of King County known as White Center.

As police moved to get a hold on the situation, a SWAT unit that happened to be in the area arrived at the scene and King County Sheriff's deputies also responded. Shots were fired while the medics were at the scene and at least two officers with rifles were deployed.

At some point, Phan exited the modest three-bedroom house the families were renting, but soon went back inside.

Officers were attempting to gain control of the area when Phan's husband, a man in his 60s, ran past police and into the back door of the house, Pugel said. At that point, officers still didn't know how many people were dead or wounded and where exactly Phan was.

Two shots rang out. The man came out of the house and told police she was dead.

"I just heard gun shots. I come out and cops were all over," neighbor Bobby Miller told KOMO/4. "Just 'bam, bam,' and that was it, then screaming over here."

Police rushed the house looking for Phan, wearing a white shirt and gray sweatpants. The four victims were confirmed dead at the scene about 2:15 p.m.

Investigators described a horrific scene -- one Pugel said was as disturbing as the 2006 Capitol Hill shooting and the Wah Mee massacre, which was the worst mass-murder case in state history. In that February 1983 incident, 13 people were killed and another was wounded.

Thursday's incident brings the number of homicides in Seattle this year to 15, not including officer-involved incidents still under investigation. Of that number, at least nine have been domestic violence cases.

"It's a solved crime," Pugel said of Thursday's massacre. "But all the legal aspects aside, it's the emotional impact, the emotional impact you have on the young officers out there on the firefighters, the medics -- 10 times that for the survivors.

"Regardless of what she did, several people are without a mother, a grandmother and a man's without a wife. And that's terrible."

Statement released by families

Yesterday afternoon's horrible event cost us four family members. They will surely be missed by all of us.

We ask that the media please correct the currently published report. Saroeun Phan has been struggling with schizophrenia and depression for several years and has sought medical attention numerous times. She has been taking medication prescribed to her by physicians. It is not certain whether she has been properly taking her medication these past couple of months.

It is tough enough to grieve with the loss of family members, it's even harder dealing with false reports. No arguments or fights took place the night before and no ill-will existed in the household. This has truly been an unforeseen, tragic event.

Our family would like to request solitude as we mourn the loved ones we lost. Thank you to all who have sent and continue to send their love, care & prayers. We will certainly need our friends in the coming weeks & months.

If you wish to contribute monetarily to costs of funeral & medical expenses, we have set up a benevolent account at BECU. That information is below. Deposits can be made at any BECU accepting deposits, by mail or electronically (for BECU Members only).

Phan/Harm Memorial Fund

Acct # 3586082948

BECU

PO BOX 34044

SEATTLE, WA 98124-1044

BECU Members can call: (800) 233-2328

Thankfully,

Phan, Harm & Sok Family

Casey McNerthney can be reached at 206-448-8220 or caseymcnerthney@seattlepi.com. Follow Casey on Twitter at twitter.com/mcnerthney.

Seattlepi.com news gatherers Levi Pulkkinen, Vanessa Ho and Joshua Trujillo contributed to this report.

Loved ones remember devoted father, 2 sisters

Melina Harm

Jennifer Harm

Choeun Harm

Here is a closer look at the three victims in the fatal shooting rampage in West Seattle last Thursday.

Saturday, September 25, 2010
By Lynn Thompson
Seattle Times staff reporter

How to donate to the family

Phan/Harm Memorial Fund

BECU Account #3586082948

P.O. Box 34044

Seattle, WA 98124-1044

BECU members can call 800-233-2328.

Family was everything to Choeun Harm.

He had escaped the Khmer Rouge in his native Cambodia as a teenager, survived five years in a refugee camp on the border with Thailand, and then tried to re-establish his life in America, first in Pennsylvania, then in Stockton, Calif., before settling in Seattle in 1990.

He told his extended family that even if they had only a penny among them, if the family was together, it was OK.

That hope was shattered Thursday afternoon when Harm, 43, and two daughters, Jennifer, 17, and Melina, 14, were shot to death in their West Seattle home by Harm's mother-in-law, Saroeun Phan, 60, who then shot and killed herself.

Police and family members said Phan, also a Cambodian refugee, had a history of mental illness.

Saturday, surviving family members and friends remembered the three shooting victims as part of a lively, close-knit family who were more often together than apart.

"He was a good person"

Choeun Harm was an enthusiastic fisherman who often could be found under the West Seattle Bridge during salmon season. He also fished freshwater lakes.

"If you had been there and watched him, you would know how good he was," said Sarun Chhom, Harm's friend for 15 years. "He would catch two, three fish before anyone else caught one."

For weekend camping and fishing trips, the five kids would sit on top of each other in the family's Ford Explorer, crammed in with all their food and gear, said another longtime friend, Sean Phuong.

"The kids would all run around and have fun. He was a good person," Chhom said.

Harm ran a landscaping business with his father-in-law, Chhoey Sok, 62. Harm's only son, Kevin, 16, was frequently at his side, friends said. The business struggled because of the economic slowdown, and in recent months, they often worked only a few hours a day, Phuong said.

That's why they had come home around 1 p.m. Thursday and were getting ready to go fishing when Saroeun Phan came into the living room and began shooting. Harm was killed first.

His daughter, Jennifer Harm, was shot as she ran downstairs to comfort her father.

A friendly, helpful daughter

Saturday, friends remembered Jennifer as lively, funny and social. She would call friends just to chat when she was bored, said Lisa Sun, a cousin who lived with the family and survived the shooting.

Jennifer was also a homebody, helping her mother with cleaning, cooking and caring for her sisters.

Jennifer had attended Rainier Beach High School but dropped out.

She met her boyfriend, Allen Green, two and a half years ago. Jennifer's MySpace page features a photo of her in a silk Cambodian dress, swept up in Green's arms. He wrote about his love for her on the page, saying, "Don't underestimate her because she is littlest ... the end of the day she's always right there on my side ... I love you baby."

Quiet girl adored older sister

Jennifer's younger sister, Melina Harm, known to the family as Lina, adored her older sister and looked up to her, friends said. Lina was quiet. Jennifer was outgoing. Lina was more serious, whereas Jennifer liked to joke and tease.

Lina liked to dance and sing at family parties, her cousin Sun said, and she liked having the older girls paint her nails. She also liked to play basketball.

Another Harm daughter, Angel, 12, said her favorite memory of her sister Lina is of going to Dairy Queen for ice cream together when an older sister who lived in Missouri came to visit.

"She was quiet and nice. She always helped me with my homework," Angel said.

Lina always wanted to be with Jennifer. "Everywhere they go, they always go together," Sun said.

And so it was that when the young people in the home fled to a small basement room to escape from Grandma Phan on Thursday afternoon, Lina would not leave the wounded Jennifer.

Kevin broke a window and quickly scrambled out with Sun and Green. Kevin reached back for Lina and urged her to come.

Their grandmother came around the corner, shot at Kevin and missed. She shot Lina where she stood in the window.

"She wouldn't leave her older sister. Her older sister is her best friend," Kevin said.

West Seattle survivors relive terror, struggle to understand

STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Kevin Harm, 16, who was shot at by his grandmother but was not hit, was able to save one of his sisters. Two of his sisters, Jennifer Harm, 17, and Melina Harm, 14, and his father were killed.

ERIKA SCHULTZ

Thyda Luellen Phan, at center, wounded Thursday at her West Seattle home, is surrounded by supporters after a religious ceremony at the Khemarak Pothiram Temple on Friday. 

In the photo: Saroeun Phan in the middle; Choeun Harm, lower left. Next to Choeun is his son, Kevin Harm. To the right of Kevin is Thyda Luellen Phan. Next to her lower in the picture is her daughter Angel sitting with a family friend at far right. Above Angel is her sister Nevaeh Harm. In the upper right is Chip Sok, brother of Thyda. To Chip Sok's right is Chhoey Sok.  

Sixteen-year-old Kevin Harm had just returned home with his father, Choeun Harm, after mowing lawns for the family's landscaping business...

September 24, 2010

By Lynn Thompson and Christine Clarridge

Seattle Times staff reporters (Washington, USA)

Sixteen-year-old Kevin Harm had just returned home with his father, Choeun Harm, after mowing lawns for the family's landscaping business. A friend called his father with an invitation: The salmon were running.

Choeun was in the living room of the family's West Seattle home preparing to go fishing when his mother-in-law, Saroeun Phan, 60, came downstairs dressed completely in white. Phan spoke briefly with Choeun about taking some checks to the bank as Kevin's 7-year-old sister, Nevaeh — Heaven spelled backward — was cuddled beneath a blanket on a couch nearby, watching television.

Chouen, 43, bent over to tie his shoes when Phan pulled a small handgun from her jacket and shot him in the back of the head.

Kevin said there were no raised voices, nothing out of the ordinary in the moments before. It was just a seemingly normal Thursday afternoon fractured by the loud report of a handgun.

Phan next shot at Nevaeh, who hid under the blankets, and then at Kevin. Somehow, the bullets missed both.

After her gun jammed, Phan went back upstairs and retrieved another one. She then returned and resumed firing.

She finally ended it by turning the gun on herself. By then, Kevin's father, sisters Jennifer Harm, 17, and Melina Harm, 14, were dead and his mother, Thyda Luellen Phan, 42, was wounded.

"She was trying to take everybody out in that house," said Kevin.

On Friday, Seattle police said they were still without a motive behind the city's deadliest shooting spree in four years. And the family of Phan — a woman known to those in the crowded household as "Grandma" — was struggling to find answers.

The surviving family members, in a statement, said Phan had been suffering from schizophrenia and depression for several years and had sought medical attention numerous times. She had been taking medication prescribed to her by physicians, they said, but it was not clear whether she has been properly taking it over the past couple of months.

Still, many said there was nothing that could explain why she would arm herself with two handguns and methodically gun down her family.

Family friends said Phan had fled the Khmer Rouge in her native Cambodia, walking through the jungle for days and crossing the border into Thailand. She and family members came to the U.S. in 1985, said family friend Sean Phuong, 47, who was 14 when he, Phan and thousands of others escaped the brutal regime.

In Cambodia, and later in Seattle, Phan was known for dressing young women and their bridesmaids for weddings. She spent whole days fitting them into gowns, arranging their hair and makeup. She made many friends in the community, Phuong said.

Several relatives said that Phan could be playful and funny, engaging in games of tag and hide-and-seek with young family members.

But she was also plagued by voices.

"She had too much in her head. She wanted quiet in her head," said Phuong.

In Cambodia, Phan once became enraged and stabbed her sister, said Itaily Sun, 26, another relative.

When Phan became agitated or fearful, she would be given her medication that would make her sleep, Phuong said.

Kevin recalled that one time his grandmother heard gunfire on a teenager's video game and thought someone was trying to kill her.

There were other pressures in her life over the past two years, said Koy Srouch, 39, another family friend.

Phan and her husband, Chhoey Sok, 62, paid rent for a house on Beacon Hill, but the landlord apparently didn't pay the mortgage. The couple was evicted.

Recently Phan had been mugged walking home from the grocery store on Beacon Hill, and feared going out alone. After the attack, she took a self-defense class and learned to fire a gun, Sok said.

Three generations of the extended family, including two cousins, moved together into the West Seattle home about a month and a half ago. Eleven people lived in the house with three stories, including a daylight basement.

Phan's daughter, Thyda Luellen Phan, worked at Magic Lanes Bowling & Casino in White Center. That job and the family landscaping business, which struggled in the recession, were the families' sole means of support.

Sok said his wife had been suicidal.

Sok said the guns used by Phan — a 9-mm Taurus and a .25-caliber Baretta — were his and had been purchased 10 years ago. Family members said they had been carefully hidden from her because of her mental-health problems.

"Nobody knows how she found them," said relative Tony Sun.

Gunfire and desperation

On Thursday, after shooting her son-in-law, then retrieving the second gun, Phan next shot her 17-year-old granddaughter, Jennifer Harm, who had run to her father's aid. She then shot her daughter, Thyda Luellen Phan, 42, who had also come to comfort her husband, Kevin said.

All were shot in the home's main living area on the ground floor.

Thyda (pronounced Tee-da) fled outside, only to return almost immediately in a desperate effort to save her children, said Lisa Sun, 31, a cousin of Thyda's who ran to a back bedroom when the gunfire erupted.

Thyda was shot two more times before she made it outside a second time, Lisa Sun said.

The others fled downstairs to the daylight basement, followed by Phan, who positioned herself in front of a rear sliding-glass door.

"She was blocking us in so she could shoot us all," said Lisa Sun. "She just wanted to kill her whole family."

Five people were cowering in a tiny bedroom that was plastered with green posters of the Buddha and lined with boxes from the family's recent move: Kevin, Lisa, Nevaeh, Melina, and Jennifer's boyfriend, Allen Green, 18.

Phan shot through the door, the bullet just missing Kevin's head. Kevin said he punched out the small window. Lisa Sun climbed out behind him and they ran to a nearby drugstore to call police. Green also made it out.

Kevin returned to the home and pulled Nevaeh out through the window.

By this time a wounded Jennifer had crawled into the bedroom where she sprawled on the floor. Unable to make it out the window, she pleaded with the others not to leave her, Kevin and Lisa Sun said.

Kevin begged Melina to come out, but she wouldn't leave Jennifer. That's when Phan, now outside, came around the corner of the house and shot at Kevin. Again she missed, and he ran off. She then fired through the window, striking Melina.

"The image keeps playing back: Lina crying at the window," Kevin said, burying his head in his hands.

"I don't see how she missed me five times," he said.

Police on the scene

By this time police had responded to 911 calls and were outside the home, according to Seattle's Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel. Officers heard gunshots coming from the home.

Sok, Phan's husband, arrived at the home, rushed past police and ran inside the home. He saw his wife put the gun to her head and kill herself, police said.

He walked back outside and told police it was over.

"I was too late to help her," a weeping Sok said Friday through a translator. "I was too late."

On Friday, after police completed their investigation at the crime scene, surviving family members were allowed inside the home to retrieve some of their belongings.

As he walked through the house where blood stains marked where his uncle and cousins were killed, Tony Sun, 17, was overcome.

"Oh my God. Oh my God," he said.

Friday evening, the large extended family gathered at the Khemarak Pothiram Temple for a memorial service. Sitting shoeless on rugs under a white tent, they prayed that the souls of the deceased would make their way to the next life.

Pink-wrapped packages had been prepared, filled with pencils, books, drinks and other things that the spirits would need for their journey. Monks clad in orange chanted prayers, and incense hung in the air.

Thyda was there, just out of the hospital. But she could do little more than whisper, her voice weakened after her ordeal.

Sok, Phan's husband, came outside toward the end of the ceremony, looking weary. Faced by numerous reporters, he clasped his hands in front of his face and looking pained. Speaking Cambodian, he repeatedly thanked those who had helped him.

Several family members had their arms around him. And then he walked away.

Lynn Thompson: 206-464-8305 or lthompson@seattletimes.com

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times staff reporters Maureen O'Hagan, Nancy Bartley and Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this report. Ranny Kang provided translation.

Kent man pleads guilty in Cambodia child exploitation case

July 27, 2010
Posted by John de Leon
The Seattle Times

A Kent man pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to sexual exploitation of a child in connection with a January trip to Cambodia where he had sex with underage girls, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Craig Carr, 59, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, and up to 30 years in prison, when he is sentenced in October.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Carr made contact over the Internet with a person in Cambodia who agreed to find girls for Carr to have sex with during a visit to the country. Carr paid the individual approximately $8,000 for sex with the girls during a week-long trip to Cambodia. Carr reportedly told the person arranging the sexual encounters that he wanted the girls to be about 12 years old.

Carr traveled from Seattle to Phnom Penh on Jan. 13. When he was arrested nine days later he admitted that he had sex with three young girls during his stay in Cambodia, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. His camera contained pictures of three young victims. Two of the victims have been located.

Earthy and aromatic Cambodian flavors top their Thai counterparts

Fried tilapia (All photos: Hugo Kugiya)
Num banh chuk

Tola Kruy behind the counter at Queen's Deli

May 20, 2010
By Hugo Kugiya
Crosscut.com

Eating on the Edge: At the family-owned Queen's Deli in White Center, let trust and curiosity be your guides.

The day I ate Cambodian food for the first time also happened to be the day of White Center Spring Clean 2010. Volunteers wearing purple T-shirts spent a Saturday in May cleaning and beautifying the streets and public spaces in the transforming, unincorporated neighborhood on a hilltop south of downtown Seattle.

Part of neither Seattle nor Burien, the two cities that border it, White Center is the petri dish of our civic aspirations, a somewhat isolated, urban community plotted with the best intentions, the kind of place many who live in Seattle probably wish the city was like: still small enough to allow for the effort of the individual, but big enough to stand for something.

King County spent $15 million here over the last five years to repair storefronts, restore a park, install wireless Internet, build new sidewalks and a community center, and finance the construction of the Greenbridge project, a mixed-income housing complex that replaced distressed and dangerous public housing originally built to temporarily shelter Boeing workers.

Beset by poverty for decades, White Center was that invisible, avoided place, of interest to few with political or cultural power. As it often happens in places like White Center, immigrants to the city settled here: Somalis, Ethiopians, Mexicans, El Salvadorans, Vietnamese, Russians, and Cambodians. Block for block, it is undoubtedly one of the most diverse places in King County, and a great bet for eating.

The spiritual and cultural heart of the Seattle area’s Cambodian community is in White Center, one of many places across the country where Cambodian immigrants have landed since 1979, when the Khmer Rouge regime fell from power, the country’s genocide ended, and its refugees started settling in the U.S.

According to U.S. Census data, most Cambodian Americans live in California and Massachusetts, followed by Washington state. One of the few museums in the world devoted to the history of Cambodia’s “killing fields,” (referring to the genocide of 1 million to 2 million Cambodians following the end of the Vietnam War) started in White Center, although it has been temporarily relocated to the Wing Luke museum in Seattle's Chinatown.

None of this was on my mind the weekend afternoon I visited the Queen’s Deli, one of the few Cambodian restaurants in the Seattle area. I was preoccupied with the dearth of Cambodian dining options (despite the number of immigrants in the area), a curious circumstance given the number of Vietnamese and Thai restaurants in the city — Cambodia shares borders as well as plenty of cultural DNA with Thailand and Vietnam. Thai food in particular is so ubiquitous, it is nearly as emblematic of Seattle as salmon and teriyaki.

The Kirirom Restaurant & Bakery in Lynnwood recently closed, and a pho restaurant replaced it. That leaves the Phnom Penh Noodle House in Chinatown as the only other option around here, although Phnom Penh is more of a hybrid of Cambodian, Thai and Chinese.

Queen’s Deli has the distinction of being surrounded by other Cambodian businesses and being patronized mostly by Cambodian immigrants. A few blocks away, the largest grocery in the neighborhood, the Samway market, is owned by the Yim family, from Cambodia by way of Louisiana. The Queen’s Deli is owned by the Kruy family — husband Chengtay, wife Chamtong and their adult son Tola, 23, who grew up near Phnom Penh but attended high school in Kent and is now a student at Highline Community College. The Kruys opened Queen’s Deli less than two years ago.

Tola said the restaurant's name refers to his mom, who does all the cooking and runs the kitchen. "My parents wanted to give the restaurant a Cambodian name, but I didn't want to do that," he said. "I didn't want people to think the food was just for Cambodian people."

While tables are abundant, the restaurant is more of a takeout joint. Women come to buy bags of sweet rolls and other baked goods. Families order ahead for trays of fried noodles for birthday parties. Men grab sandwiches made with grilled pork and baguettes — Cambodia or Kampuchea (an older, more faithful English transliteration) was formerly a French protectorate — wrapped in butcher paper. The restaurant has plenty of pre-made food to go: hot-out-of-the-oil rice-flour donuts; colorful, gelatinous sweets; a Cambodian version of a hambao, stuffed with mushrooms, onions, and pork; and various noodles and sautéed dishes kept in hot trays behind the counter.

But for those with a little time, the most rewarding dishes are those made to order. Dishes are constructed from scratch and take some time in the small kitchen. The best among them are soups and stews that share hints of similarity with Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian food. Bright aromatics like ginger and lemongrass are part of the cuisine as are peppery herbs, rice noodles and curries. Cambodian food is less spicy and sweet than Thai food. But if the difference between Cambodian food and other Asian food can be reduced to one ingredient, it would be prahok.

Prahok is to Khmer cooking — Khmer also refers to the language of Cambodia and to its people — what fish sauce is to Thai cooking. It is fish paste, made from the gutted, scaled, salted, fermented remains of various freshwater fish. It is a pale, pinkish grey in color and possesses a pungent aroma that gives Khmer food a deep, earthy flavor. The flavors of the Thai food we consume locally seem elementary by comparison. Prahok is used in most Khmer dishes, as a base of flavor to build on.

The dishes at Queen’s Deli cost $7 or less. The menu contains some photographs that are of some help to those new to Cambodian food. Otherwise, a certain trust and sense of curiosity are the best guides. Friendly and helpful, Tola is also happy to explain the menu and inform your choices.

He is likely to suggest num banh chuk ($6), ribbons of thin rice noodles served in a pale-colored sauce, made with prahok, ground lemongrass and spices that impart a subtle, curry-like flavor. The sauce is soupy in consistency but dense with flavor. Mixed into the sauce is ground pork, chopped long beans, cucumbers, mint leaves, and bean sprouts.

Another idiosyncratic dish is samloh kako ($7), referred to on the menu as Cambodian ratatouille. The designation is a bit misleading, as the dish is more of a savory stew. It too possesses a pale, somewhat unappetizing, green-gray color thanks to the prahok. The flavor, however, does not disappoint. The dish is traditionally made with fish, but on Tola’s suggestion, I ordered it with pork rib on the bone. The stew contains bits of pumpkin, eggplant, and leafy herbs. Like the num banh chuk, it is not spicy, allowing you to take in and appreciate the depth of its flavors.

To oversimplify, Cambodian food is rustic compared to Thai food. The preparation is elegant but basic. Take the fried tilapia ($6), skin-on, deep-fried cross sections of fish tossed with onions sliced longitudinally with small slabs of ginger and whole, fermented beans. Served with plain rice, the dish is slightly sweet, mostly salty, and funky in the best possible way. You can imagine it cooked at home. That is the overall effect of the Queen’s Deli. It feels like a home kitchen, somewhere far away.

So much of White Center feels that way, a world apart from the city most of us know. With the streets now shiny and less threatening, the mainstream is finding its way here too. The Dubsea coffee shop in the Greenbridge development is a bright, airy hangout as sleek and cool as any in Capitol Hill. It serves Stumptown coffee beans, and baked goods from Macrina and Le Fournil. Full Tilt serves its gourmet ice cream here — it operates two other stores in Columbia City and the University District.

The beauty of White Center is that it contains, in equal parts, the familiar and the unfamiliar. Starting in June, the Kruys are proud to report, the Queen’s Deli will start serving Cambodian hot pot, which the owners found difficult to describe, saying only that it is not like any other kind of hot pot you have eaten, a claim I would bet on with confidence.

If you go: Queen’s Deli, 9808 14th Ave. S.W., Seattle, 206-767-8363. Open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A former national reporter for Newsday and The Associated Press, journalist and author Hugo Kugiya writes about the Northwest for several publications, including his former employer, The Seattle Times. He has covered sports, crime, transportation, legal affairs, and music. His book 58 Degrees North was a finalist for the 2006 Washington State Book Award. You can reach him at hkugiya@yahoo.com.

Help for Seattle family who lost everything in fire

February 6, 2010
By TONYA MOSLEY
KING 5 News (Seattle, Washington, USA)

SEATTLE - The leader of the Sahak Khemararam Buddhist Temple chants, the monks eat, and the members collect money, as Sean Phoung weeps for his only son Prackserth.

"I think about him all the time every minute, every second," he said.

It's Buddhist tradition, the food is eaten so that Prackserth (also known as Patrick) may be full on his journey to the next life. The clothing will give him warmth and the money will be burned, so that Prackserth may prosper.

So many sacrifices for their beloved son, as the Phoung family is left here with almost nothing.

"When I heard that they found my son in there I was so shocked. I lost my life," said his mother Sody.

Eight members of the Phoung family now sleep on the floor of the temple, relying on their friends for food and donated clothing. Their house was destroyed in a fire on Monday, Prackserth's body was discovered inside.

But Sean assures his family that they will endure. Thirty years ago he survived the killing fields of Cambodia and he says they will surely survive this. Tonight they're starting over and looking forward to seeing Prackserth again, in the next life.

Fire officials say they don't expect to know the cause of the fire until next week.

Contact the Cambodia Women's Health Organization for more information on how to help the family. Contact Klaudia Snguon at 206-372-0752 koltida@yahoo.com

Cambodian-American teen perished in house fire in Seattle

(Photo: MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES)
Seattle firefighters battle a South Park neighborhood house fire late Monday. A teenager died, and six people escaped. (Photo: CLIFF DESPEAUX / THE SEATTLE TIMES)

Neighbor rescues all but one in fire

Tuesday, February 2, 2010
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter

A 17-year-old boy was killed in a fire that gutted the garage of a South Park home Monday night.

Even though Jackie Schwendeman helped six people escape a burning house in South Park on Monday night, she grieved the life she couldn't save.

The 17-year-old boy who lived across the street was the same age as her daughter, after all.

"I was able to get everybody out but one," she said Tuesday afternoon, tears sliding down her face as she peered out her window at the charred wreckage of her neighbors' garage in the 8800 block of Fifth Avenue South.

She moved outside and watched from her front porch as the boy's parents, accompanied by a monk in orange robes and a Seattle Fire Department chaplain, prayed beside a gurney holding the teen's remains, moments before it was loaded into a van.

Schwendeman offered up her own prayer, her eyes squeezed shut and her palms pressed together: "Just wrap your arms around them. Bring them some comfort and peace, I beg you." It was Schwendeman, 48, who saw smoke billowing from her neighbors' garage Monday night when she took her puppy outside for a walk. She ran back into her house, yelled for her daughter to call 911, and sprinted across the street.

By then, "it was really smokey," and flames were starting to climb up the side of the house, she said.

Schwendeman banged on the door but didn't wait for an answer before barging in, yelling that the garage was on fire. She picked up an elderly man — she said he was the teenager's 88-year-old grandfather — and carried him to a car outside.

"I went back in, and by this time the windows were busting out," Schwendeman said.

"Then there were three explosions from the garage. The fire was like that," she said, snapping her fingers. "It was that fast."

Six family members escaped safely. When the family couldn't find the 17-year-old, "we told the Fire Department someone was in the house. But they couldn't find anybody," Schwendeman said.

Schwendeman and other neighbors, thinking the teen had escaped, spent frantic minutes searching nearby streets, calling his name. Family members later gathered in Schwendeman's home, where Fire Department officials told them the teen's remains were found after firefighters had knocked down the flames.

"They were all crying. They called me a hero, and I'm not. I could've got him out if I'd have known," said Schwendeman, who was overcome with grief and guilt. "They lost their son, they lost everything. I want to help them and I don't know how."

As of Tuesday afternoon, the cause of the fire was "undetermined pending autopsy results," said Dana Vander Houwen, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Fire Department. The teenager, who was identified by neighbors, has not been officially identified by the King County Medical Examiner's Office.

The family was too grief-stricken to speak to reporters. But another neighbor, Chho Collins, said the family, originally from Cambodia, moved into the two-story house about 16 years ago.

"They're a happy family," Collins said. "They play music together, always laughing and joking."

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654