Thursday, April 05, 2012

One Goh Oikos Shooter Led Troubled Life + Josh and Steve Powell

[more on blog]
The San Jose Mercury News has done an excellent series on the Oakland "Christian College" shootings, and shooter One Goh. They posted this pretty extensive video from a local TV station:



See end for list of articles from the Mercury

from one of the best summaries I've seen:

OAKLAND -- Saddled with debt, a failed marriage and a crumbling business, One L. Goh left Virginia and headed west in 2009 to start over.It got much worse in the Golden State. The brother of a heavily decorated Iraq War veteran lost a job as a Korean food deliveryman in San Mateo due to a hot temper. Another job at a peninsula Korean supermarket failed to pan out. His Army hero brother died in a tragic car accident shortly before his mother passed away in his home country of South Korea. The naturalized U.S. citizen's life seemed to take a turn for the better last year when he enrolled at a tiny Christian vocational nursing school in Oakland, but that too went sour when he dropped out for unspecified reasons after a fight with administrators over tuition. One, 43, reached his limit and bought a gun in February. continued

Nigerian mother of three Doris Chibuko was one of the victims. She told her husband that Goh was belligerent toward Oikos students and staff, even kicking the walls of the building". She and others told administrators about the danger he posed to students. Another professor remember that Goh bragged of beating up youths that tried to mug him, and that he would pick fights in the park when he was bored. But though students believe the school was aware of his violent tendencies, Ellen Cervellon, the Oikos nursing director who evidently was Go's initial target but was teaching at another college that day, stated that Goh was never asked to leave, he left on his own and showed no behavioral problems. Goh did return when he got angry after he was told he had been enrolled for half the program.

All I can see from the longer view is that Asians need to take care of all our people, it's fine to celebrate success, but we need to look after the ones that don't end up in first place as well. People like Goh need to spotted and helped before they fall this far.

Susan Powell Case Evidence Deliberately Kept From Public


The other case that has got my attention is that Susan Powell case where Seattle people are astounded at the amount of evidence that West Valley police had against Josh Powell, the father who said he took his boys on a midnight snowstorm camping trip the night his wife disappeared. Authorities had hidden rather than shared with Washington law enforcement and the world that almost completes "all the evidence but the body".

Authorities say that are only waiting for enough evidence so that a jury of peers would convict him, but there was clearly enough evidence out within days for the jury of the internet to convict Josh of doing something horrible enough to leave bloodstains all over the living room couch and carpet, take his boys out into a winter snowstorm with cans of gasoline, shovel and a tarp to the put the body where no one could find  it, be seen in a stripper bar telling everybody he had a terrible day, and then tell a ridiculous story nobody but his father would admit to believing. The only people willing to give Josh the benefit of the doubt is Josh's family who has been promoting a toxic conspiracy theory she ran off with another missing man to Brazil. Now news is that father Steven Powell who is in jail for voyerism took two sick days on the exactly the day Josh rented a car which people speculate he probably drove to meet his father half-way, possibly with a body. Everybody is convinced Steven, who won't talk to authorities, must know what happened to Susan if not where her remains are.

They did not announce that they had found blood on the floor where Susan's friends noticed a red flag of two fans drying a cleaned couch with a big red stain on the rug, or that Josh lied about why he did not call back, or that Josh changed his story after his sister didn't believe that Susan was at work. They also did not deliver a letter addressed to her family that stated she believed that she might be murdered and it would look like an accident. Susan's father Chuck Cox was never informed of the letter. The only explanation that fits is that while authorities did push a bit to get Josh to break, they seem to use every conceivable legal tactic to keep Josh from even being named as a suspect, or to even state the obvious that Susan was almost certainly murdered by her husband. Utah authorities were angry the information was released, and still maintain they have not figured out what happened to Susan, and it is still a missing persons case though they have not excluded murder.

Comments have given me an insight into why local authorities have been so kind to Josh even after he murdered his boys and committed suicide. Mormon critics charged that West Valley leaders are so conservative that they have sided with Josh against a "mouthy woman who got what she deserved" though I can't confirm anyone actually said that. I can confirm a man who commented that he was firmly pro-LDS still believed there isn't enough evidence to even charge Josh Powell. Maybe it's playing a little game of Asians vs. Mormons again, but just like One Goh had some problems made worse by Asian attitudes towards expectations of Asian men, is it possible that culture also played a part in Josh's reaction to his falling from high ideals of fatherhood and responsbility, and community expectations of what a perfect wife should be?



  • Oakland police: Different administrator was true target of Oikos shooter



  • Apr 4:



  • Oakland university shooting: Family remembers San Leandro's Doris Chibuko as genuine, generous; husband said she raised alarm about accused gunman One Goh



  • Document: Charging document against Oakland school shooting suspect One L. Goh



  • Oakland university shooting: One Goh charged with seven counts of murder, may be eligible for death penalty



  • Apr 3:



  • Police recount first minutes of grisly scene at university where seven were killed



  • Oakland university shooting: Police dispatch tapes paint hectic scene following shooting



  • Oakland university shooting: Hundreds gather at vigils for shooting victims



  • Oakland University shooting: Willow Glen mom Judith Seymour killed in rampage



  • Nursing student lauded for sealing classroom from Oikos shooter



  • Oakland university shooting: Victim Sonam Chodon worked for Tibet's exiled government before pursuing nursing career



  • Oakland university shooting: Oakland family grieves for young mother of one, Katleen Ping



  • Authorities probe location, origin of gun used in Oakland university massacre



  • Oikos academics, finances worry state regulators



  • Oakland university shooting: Tshering Rinzing Bhutia was studying for nursing degree



  • Oakland school shooting: Hayward family grieves for nursing student Lydia Sim



  • Chief: Oakland shooting victims hailed from Korea, Nigeria and the Philippines



  • Apr 2:



  • Victim in Oakland massacre was studying for nursing degree



  • Tammerlin Drummond: Another black mark for Oakland



  • Oikos University shooting: Other major shootings in San Francisco Bay Area



  • Oikos University attracts nursing, music, religion students



  • Former student opens fire at Oakland university, killing 7



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