Trust 'gone' after police handling of accused Chinatown killer: victim's family
CTV
As Father's Day creeps closer, all Jolie Hoang can think of is the night her dad died in Edmonton's Chinatown four weeks ago.
As Father's Day creeps closer, all Jolie Hoang can think of is the night her dad died in Edmonton's Chinatown four weeks ago.
"Every night before I sleep – I don't know why – I relive it."
At 11 p.m. on May 18, Ban Hoang still had not returned home. His family's calls went unanswered, so a relative went to Chinatown where Hoang had run an audio-visual electronics store for more than three decades. They found several blocks of the district, northeast of Edmonton's downtown core, taped off by police.
When Jolie and her mom arrived, they were told a dead man had been found inside the family's business. They waited hours in their vehicle at the scene until investigators confirmed their fear.
"I lost it. I fell to my knees and cried and cried. And I screamed. Even though I knew it was already my dad," Jolie told CTV News Edmonton in an interview Tuesday evening. "Knowing he was all alone for so many hours. I didn't even call him to check up on him. He was just laying there alone. Alone and cold."
Ban's daughter is the first to be speaking publicly about the longtime Chinatown entrepreneur who told people to call him "Uncle Ben" because he "wanted everyone to feel like they were part of his family."
Welcoming, but private, was the 61-year-old who came to Canada as a teenager from a refugee camp in China.