Asian American restaurant owners arming themselves; fear for their lives

SCREEN CAPTURE

One of the Chinese restaurant owners practices firing his firearm.

ASAM NEWS

A MAN ACCUSED of killing a Chinese restaurant owner as he returned home from work in Durham, North Carolina made his first court appearance on May 8.
A day earlier, another owner of a Chinese restaurant returning home in Raleigh, North Carolina was robbed at gunpoint by three people in ski masks.

Now the Herald Sun is reporting that many Chinese restaurant owners are arming themselves out of fear for their own safety.

The Sun reports they’ve formed the North Carolina Chinese Hunting Club and are training themselves to use firearms. Some have even purchased AR-15 assault style rifles.

“If there’s a car directly behind me … when I’m driving home and I reach my neighborhood, I won’t turn,” Lang Dong, a Raleigh restaurant owner who has seven guns, said to the Herald Sun. “I’ll keep going. I’m so nervous that they’re following me, I won’t risk leading them to my family. I’ll keep driving until there is no one there.

“I tell my family to keep an eye out during the day.”

Concern among the restaurant owners for their safety has been building for several years. In 2014, a task force was formed by the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation after about 35 armed robberies and attempted robberies on Asian business owners.

In Raleigh, police this week began investigating the robbery outside the home of another Chinese restaurant owner, according to WRAL.

“She opened the door. As she was walking inside the door, they came up beside her and jumped her. There was no car parked outside. They were hiding,” one of her relatives told the 911 dispatcher.

Police say the suspects grabbed the victim’s gun and hogtied her. The victim has not been identified.

When her husband and son came home, they were also tied up by the suspects who made off with thousands of dollars in cash.

The incident comes three weeks after another restaurant owner in Durham, Hong Zheng, was shot and killed during a robbery attempt outside his home.

Maurice Owen Wiley, Jr., 28, who was arrested last week, made his first court appearance Tuesday, report WTVD. He faces several counts including first degree murder and attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon.

The suspect’s father is in shock.

“I’m devastated. I’m devastated, because I know my son,” he said ti WTVD.
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