Memorial, rally held for slain Warren teenager

February 4, 2007

BY GINA DAMRON

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The shooting death of a Hmong teen by Warren police last year has prompted activism among local Asian Americans, community members and civil rights organizations.

On Saturday, an ad hoc coalition -- born from the Detroit Asian Youth Project -- held a community forum and memorial service for Chonburi Xiong at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Detroit. Among the poetry and songs were serious discussions about racial injustice and police brutality.

Before the service began, Chonburi Xiong's father, Pang Blia Xiong, said -- using family representative Tom Vang as a translator -- that his son's death "has traumatized the family. ... They're struggling everyday."

In December, Chonburi Xiong's family filed a $5-million wrongful death lawsuit against the city and four police officers. Xiong, 19, was shot 27 times by officers in the basement of his family's home on Martin Road.

The family moved to Warren in 2003 from Detroit, where they had lived since 1990 after moving from Thailand. Pang Blia Xiong, who is originally from Laos, said that his family hasn't returned to their home since the shooting in September.

Warren "is a good city," Vang said, again translating. "They never expected this to happen."

Police were called to the Xiong home the night of Sept. 16, after Chonburi Xiong got into an argument with his mother. Xiong fired several rounds into the ceiling and drove off in his mother's vehicle.

The next morning, officers returned and confronted him.

Police have said that an appropriate amount of force was used on Xiong, who had a gun, but did not discharge it.

"If the police can't think of a single mistake made ... then we will all live in fear that someone we love will be the victim of a police shooting," Scott Kurashige, a professor of Asian-Pacific Islander American studies at the University of Michigan, said to the crowd.

To the audience, Vang read a statement by the Xiong family, which says they believe that their son's death could have been avoided.

"No matter how hard the struggle may be," Vang read, "we will continue to seek justice for our son."

Contact GINA DAMRON at 248-351-3293 or gdamron@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.