Top News Stories in Koreatown 2013

January 2013

Tammy Kim, a resident of Koreatown-adjacent Westlake, files suit against the LAPD for sexual battery. Three other women have come forward with similar allegations of sex under duress against the same officers — originally part of Hollywood Division’s narcotics unit, Luis Valenzuela was reassigned to Koreatown’s Olympic Division, while James Nichols was transferred to Northeast Division, covering Echo Park.

February 6, 2013

Samuel In, a former inspector with the L.A. Department of Building and Safety, pleads guilty in a federal bribery case involving at least a dozen properties in Koreatown. He is best known for being a prominent member of the WCKNC (Wilshire Center – Koreatown Neighborhood Council), which makes recommendations on Land Use and other zoning matters, since 2005.

March 17, 2013

Koreatown visitor Kim Nguyen is picked up for public intoxication at 6th & Serrano and then brutalized by the LAPD in an incident that was reported as her jumping or falling out of the police vehicle. The arresting officers have been identified as David E. Shin and Jin-Seok Oh of Olympic Division.

Kim Nguyen LAPD victim

March 19, 2013

Cornelius Rich, a 62-year-old black man, was found dead at his apartment in the 500 block of Kingsley Drive. Also known as Andre Dupree, he died from blunt-force trauma, which detectives opted to rule as a homicide instead of a slip-and-fall accident.

April 5, 2013 

Mark Thomas Couturier dies after being tasered by LAPD Central Division officers on North Vermont Avenue, just north of Koreatown proper. For some reason, they somehow crossed the freeway into territory overseen by Rampart Division.

April 17, 2013

Kellen Mahone is shot dead at approximately 1:15 a.m. in the 800 block of S. Gramercy Place, near 8th Street. Mahone was approached by a man who pulled out a gun and shot him multiple times. Oriiginally from Kansas, Mahone moved to Koreatown within the last year and resided in an apartment near the location where the shooting occurred. No suspect has been identified.

April 27, 2013

A 90-year-old male Korean bike rider is struck and killed in a hit-and-run on Virgil & 6th, just east of Koreatown proper, at around 5:10 am. The victim has been identified as Joo Yoon. The suspect has not been identified.

May 2013

Tenth anniversary of the infamous Wilshire Center – Koreatown Neighborhood Council that harbored corrupt building inspector Samuel In for six years and is currently harboring Michael Russell, the inviter of convicted felon Alexandria Thompson.

May 19, 2013

Garshady assistant Mitch O’Farrell wins Council District 13, defeating carpetbagger John Choi.

June 23, 2013

CicLAvia shuts down Koreatown.

July 16, 2013

Juan Diaz Chavez, a Marine veteran and avid police supporter working as a security guard, is shot dead by LAPD outside a church in the 1800 block of West Pico Boulevard in Pico-Union, just southeast of Koreatown. His assailants have been identified as gang-enforcement officers Fernando Flores and Alfredo Aguay who were not in uniform during the encounter.

August 28, 2013

LAPD shoot dead a man who allegedly fired upon officers on Pico near Mariposa, just south of Koreatown proper.

September 2013

Surveillance video surfaces of what happened to Kim Nguyen, totally obliterating the veracity of statements made by LAPD Olympic Division cops. Fellow church members of arresting officers David Shin and Jinseok Oh, as well as 1.5-generation Korean Americans, rally in defense of what the men did to the Vietnamese-American woman.

September 12, 2013

Assi Market is shut down yet another time by the Los Angeles County Health Department upon discovery of vermin harborage and infestation.

November 11, 2013

Fifth-year anniversary of LAPD’s senseless killing of resident Dontaze Storey.

November 24, 2013

Koreatown resident Randall Kreeger is found dead in an East Hollywood dumpster. It is assumed he actually died inside his apartment at 3348 James M. Wood Blvd. and had his deceased body transported by his murderer to the location where it was eventually located.

November 28, 2013

Fire breaks out at J Plaza on Olympic & New Hampshire.


This page will be updated as information for the year becomes ordered.