Run "Peter" Chhoun (; born 1972) is a Cambodian gang leader of the Tiny Rascal Gang convicted for involvement in nine murders committed in the US state of California between July and August 1995 alongside multiple accomplices. His co-defendant in most of the crimes, fellow TRG leader Samreth Pan, was also sentenced to death for four of the murders while five other accomplices received lengthy prison sentences.
Early life Chhoun was born in rural Cambodia to Buddhist rice farmers. During the Cambodian Civil War, his father was conscripted into the Khmer Republic's military to fight the Communist Party of Kampuchea. Around 1976, when Chhoun was between four and five years old, his home village was taken over by Khmer Rouge forces and after hiding for several days, the family was captured. Chhoun and his older brother were separated from their father, who was imprisoned and tortured, and initially remained with their mother. Khmer Rouge discouraged displays of affection between the Chhoun brothers and their mother, once preventing her from comforting Chhoun after he was rescued from a near drowning. The brothers were eventually sent off to a labor camp, where they remained until the early stages of the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, when the Khmer Rouge was deposed. There was no bedding except hay and nutrition consisted solely of rice water. According to Chhoun's brother, they were forced to dig graves and bury women and other children murdered in the killing fields by the Khmer Rouge in exchange for food and water. When Chhoun was seven years old, the brothers personally witnessed the execution of two people by soldiers. The brothers made two escape attempts, being recaptured each time and physically punished as a result.
When Chhoun was around eight years old, both brothers managed to flee to Thailand on foot over the course of three days, during which time they saw several dead bodies and witnessed a family of fellow refugees die in a land mine explosion. They were reunited with their parents at a refugee camp and while in Thailand, Chhoun contracted tuberculosis and was regularly malnourished, often running away from the camp to hunt rats and rabbits, scavenge in garbage, or beg for food.
The Chhoun family immigrated to the United States in 1981 after being sponsored by a Catholic priest, first settling in Mobile, Alabama. The family remained poor and were subject to racial abuse. Chhoun regularly ran away from home, sleeping overnight in dumpsters. His later defense argued that Chhoun was raised in a neighborhood with frequent gang-related shootings and that he never learned fluent English. In 1985, the family moved to San Bernardino, California, where both parents became alcoholics while Chhoun became involved in gang activity and had a son.
Summary of crimes
From July 10 to August 9, 1995, 22-year-old Run Chhoun (also known as "Chaka"), 18-year-old Samreth Pan ("Rusty"), and various fellow Tiny Rascal Gang members carried out eleven murders in three different counties in California as well as Washington state, all of which were committed using firearms. All the victims in the home invasions were Vietnamese immigrants, though the first four victims were mistakenly identified as Hmong initially.
Home invasions On July 10, 1995, Chhoun and 21-year-old Giao Ly ("Sandman") robbed the apartment of 26-year-old Johnny Hagan Jr. (also known as Le Sang) and 23-year-old Hong Nga Thi Pham in Spokane. The robbers tied up Hagan and Pham and pushed them to the floor, where the couple were cut with a knife after they refused to hand over any valuables. Chhoun killed the couple by shooting Hagan twice in the head and Pham in the head and chest using a .45 caliber handgun. The couple's children, four-year-old Johnny "Joe" Hagan III and one-year-old Diana Hagan, hid and saw the robbers before they left with $4,000 and some jewelry. According to Ly, he had left the gang and attempted to live in hiding in Washington before Chhoun located him and coerced Ly into becoming an accomplice by threatening his family with death. His presence was confirmed by fingerprints on the front door and a bloody handprint on a cabinet. Joe alerted neighbors the following morning and later identified Chhoun as the shooter.
According Chhoun's girlfriend Champa Onkhamdy, she, Chhoun, Ly, and Kunthea Sar ("Precious") had driven to Spokane together, but she and Sar stayed at an apartment while Chhoun and Ly carried out the robbery. After they returned, Chhoun and Ly hid out at Onkhamdy's home in Portland, where the two gave part of the loot to one or two other people. She initially claimed to have overheard the group mentioning murder, but later stated that she could not understand the conversation since she was not a speaker of Khmer. Chhoun gave Onkhamdy some of the stolen jewelry before he returned to California via plane.
On July 27, Chhoun, Pan, and a 16-year-old newcomer TRG member, William Evans ("C.J."), robbed the apartment store of Hung Diue Le and Quyen Luu in Florin. The gang's getaway driver, 16-year-old Bunjun Chhinkhathork ("Puppet"), had pointed the couple out as targets. After Chhinkhathork, accompanied either by Pan or Evans, visited the apartment and bought candy to scope out the location, Chhoun, Pan, and Evans, approached the entrance of the building and attempted to take the couple's daughter, 17-year-old Amie Le, as a hostage at gunpoint. Amie ran off and hid in a neighbor's apartment, where her brother and sister were visiting a friend, warning her mother of the robbers along the way. Chhoun, wielding a 9mm Glock pistol, entered the Le apartment and fought with Quyen Luu, who was shot in the leg. Chhoun was then attacked with a chair by Luu's father-in-law Nghiep Thich Le, who was shot in the arm and head. Chhoun also killed Hung Diue Le with a gunshot to the chest. The gang fled the scene with no money.
Drive-by shootings On August 6, Chhoun was the driver of a car carrying Pan and Evans, driving around Muscoy in search of a rival Oriental Boys gang member known as "Bones", who had fired several gunshots outside of the home of Pan's mother. The group followed the vehicle of Bunlort Bun, who was transporting two people, including a different member of the Oriental Boys, as passengers. After Bun dropped the two men off, the gang engaged Bun in a car chase, which ended when Bun's car was shot and rolled to a stop in San Bernardino. Chhoun drove up to the driver's side of the vehicle and shot Bun three times, which was followed by three additional gunshots by Pan at Chhoun's instruction. Chhoun later bragged about the murder, unaware that Bun was not "Bones". A forensic examination determined that both shooters used 9mm pistols and that Pan's gunshots caused Bun's death.
On August 8, Chhoun drove a car carrying Pan, Sar, and a 14-year-old girl known as "D.T." in Pomona. The group drove up to two Hispanic men, Rodolfo Huerta and Miguel Vargas Avina, who were preparing to drive off in Huerta's pick-up truck to go rabbit hunting. Huerta was injured and Avina was killed by several gunshots, fired either by Chhoun, Pan, or both men, using the same guns as the previous shooting. Huerta had been carrying a hunting rifle, which he was not aiming. Chhoun and Pan later claimed that they had mistaken Avina for a rival gang member.
Elm Street killings On August 9, Chhoun, Evans, and another new member, 16-year-old Vinh Tran ("Scrappy"), robbed the Nguyen family in San Bernardino. Chhoun borrowed a second gun to arm Vinh Tran from Pan, who declined to participate. The gang was accompanied by 19-year-old Nhung Thi Tran ("Karol"; no relation to Vinh Tran), a friend of the Nguyens who had suggested them as targets. In the evening, she knocked on the residence's front door while the gang hid in some bushes and after the father, Henry Nguyen, opened the door, Vinh Tran forced his way inside at gunpoint, followed by Chhoun and Evans, while Nhung Tran returned to the getaway vehicle. After first taking Henry Nguyen, his wife Trinh Tran, and their 13-year-old daughter Doan Nguyen hostage, Vinh Tran brought three other children, 11-year-old Daniel Nguyen, 10-year-old David Nguyen, and 2-year-old Dennis Tran, into the living room, forcing all six to the ground. Since the Nguyens spoke no English, Vinh Tran translated for Chhoun, who demanded money and threatened their youngest child Dennis with a meat cleaver when Henry Nguyen claimed that they had no money; Henry ultimately relinquished $2,000 in cash. Vinh Tran forced toothpaste into Trinh Tran's nostrils, claiming it was poison as a threat. Evans searched the house for valuables and returned to the living room after Daniel agreed to lead him to a stash of money in another room.
While Evans was in another part of the home with Daniel, Chhoun or Vinh Tran killed Henry Nguyen, shooting him once in the back of the head and a second time in the chest once he was on the ground. Four superficial cuts from a knife were also found on his nape. When Evans returned to investigate the noise, the two told Evans to leave. Over the course of fifteen minutes, Trinh Tran, Doan, Daniel, and David were killed inside the house, all of them having been shot multiple times in the head, chest, and legs. Dennis survived with a gunshot to the hand and informed his paternal aunt when she called twelve hours after the murders, telling her "Mommy's dead". The mother of Nhung Tran arrived to check on the family and found the bodies of Henry, Trinh and David dead in the living room, along with Dennis, who was holding his brother's hand and crying. Another neighbor discovered the bodies of Doan and Daniel in a bedroom. Chhoun later claimed that Vinh Tran "went crazy and shot a kid" and that both of them had killed the rest of the family.
Arrest Chhoun, Evans, and Vinh Tran drove to Seattle, where they borrowed money from Chhoun's girlfriend, leaving a necklace belonging to victim Trinh Tran as collateral. On August 16, Chhoun was arrested in Sacramento alongside Evans after the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office found bullets and shell casings in their car during a traffic stop. Chhoun initially gave a false residence in Portland before confessing to involvement in the murder of Nghiep Thich Le and Hung Diue Le in Sacramento, but claimed that Pan had been the one to enter the apartment and kill the victims. Chhoun was charged with two counts of murder, assault, robbery, and burglary.
Pan was arrested on September 1, after he attempted to rob two children in Signal Hill. During another interrogation on September 7, Chhoun claimed that he and Pan fled before they could rob the Le family after hearing someone else firing gunshots in the apartment. Pan separately claimed that he blacked out before the robbery and had no memory of the events that followed. Chhoun was linked to the Spokane murders that same September when his fingerprints were matched. Chhoun's cellmate during his jail custody in Sacramento told authorities that Chhoun presented the murders as a contract killing, saying he and accomplice Giao Ly were paid $10,000. On April 4, 1996, Ly was arrested in Hartford, Connecticut, and charged with aggravated first-degree murder. Chhoun was pending extradition to Washington on account of his charges in California. Pan was initially considered the main orchestrator behind the murders and several other suspected homicides linked to the TRG.
Legal process
Victims Chhoun was convicted of the following murders. Hung Diue Le (a.k.a. Heunt Luu), 47 - Sacramento, July 27, 1995 Nghiep Thich Le (a.k.a. Letntip Luu), 73 - Sacramento, July 27, 1995 (father of Hung Diue Le) Bunlort Nhing Bun, 20 - San Bernardino, August 6, 1995 Miguel Vargas Avina, 20 - Pomona, August 8, 1995 Son "Henry" Nguyen, 44 - San Bernardino, August 9, 1995 Trinh Yen Tran, 35 - San Bernardino, August 9, 1995 (wife of Henry Nguyen)