Slain shop owner had survived the 'killing fields' - Houston Chronicle
Aug. 20, 2005, 12:32AM
Mayra Beltran / Chronicle Customer Ashlynn Rice, 11, is assisted by patron Mary-Ann Heffernan in placing flowers in front of Dina's Donuts. A photo of Bunrith In is taped to the window at the upper right. Slain shop owner had survived the 'killing fields'An immigrant businessman shot in a $20 robbery is recalled as 'kind' and 'a free spirit'By CINDY HORSWELL Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Mayra Beltran / Chronicle Customer Jesse Avalos weeps after seeing the remembrances left in front of Bunrith In's store. Bunrith In's American life couldn't have been farther from the Cambodian "killing fields" he fled 26 years ago. But it was the tragic end to his American life, at the hands of a robber, that will take him back to his homeland.
A week ago, In was killed shortly after he and his wife opened their doughnut shop on West Baker Road in Baytown, as they had done every day at 4 a.m. for two years. The scent of fresh doughnuts had just begun wafting through the air, when a teenage robber, wielding a knife and gun, entered and demanded money. The robber became irate when he found only $20 and change in the register, In's wife, Mon Meach, said.
A 15-year-old student at a Baytown high school was arrested Wednesday and charged with capital murder.
Today, In's body will be delivered by horse-drawn carriage to a crematorium off the North Freeway. Mourners, following Buddhist tradition, then will wait for his ashes, some of which will be sprinkled over the fields In fled as a refugee.
Part of the ashes that remain will be scattered in the ocean In crossed with his family to find the American Dream. The rest will be left here, where he found that dream and lost it.
"My dad was always a free spirit. This is what he would have wanted," said his daughter, Nimol In.
She said her 47-year-old father had loved telling his life story, especially the part where he and his wife, her stomach ballooned from being pregnant with Nimol, walked 12 hours with blistered feet as mines exploded around them to reach a U.N. sanctuary in Thailand in 1979. He often demonstrated how he protected his wife from shrapnel by covering her with his own body.
But neither In nor his family could have anticipated the sad ending to his story.
Customers have recently left flowers and burning candles on the doorstep of the shop, which has remained closed since the stabbing. Messages and prayers have also been scrawled on the windowpanes.
An 8-year-old boy named Lonnie wrote a short goodbye note, remembering In for giving away doughnut holes to hungry neighborhood children.
"He was very kind to me," agreed Cherry Zan, another customer. In's generosity was not surprising to his family because, they said, In remembered what it was like to be hungry — that was all part of his story.
When the Khmer Rouge, a communist Maoist regime, took over Cambodia in 1975, In's father was forced to leave his post as a professor. The job had supported In and his seven siblings.
"They moved our kind to work in the rice fields, where almost 2 million died either from starvation or torture, mentally and physically," said Sokun In.
The family watched helplessly as In's grandmother died of starvation there, and they saw an uncle tied up and taken away for what they called "re-education" after he complained to a leader. He was never seen again. The family believes both were buried in one of the mass graves in the "killing fields," documented in a 1984 Academy Award-winning film.
When the communist soldiers from North Vietnam invaded in 1979, the family decided to escape.
One hot night in 1979, they made their move. After 12 hours of walking, avoiding land mines and gunfire, they reached a refugee camp on the Thai border operated by the Red Cross and United Nations.
"Then Dad wrote to the U.S. Embassy, asking them to sponsor his family to the United States," Sokun In said. The embassy approved because his father had been a captain in the Cambodian army that fought with the U.S. for democracy.
Even after the fatal stabbing, the family still believes the U.S. is the best place to live.
"It's our dream come true," said Sokun In. "Compared to where we lived, it's like going from hell to heaven."
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