Former employee charged in murder of
cleaner
Ki-Young Hong, the 42-year old owner of
Betty Brite Cleaners in Wynnefield, Pennsylvania, was shot and
killed behind the counter near the rear of his store on
November 8.
A customer discovered him in the plant
just after 7 a.m., according to homicide officer Lt. Philip J.
Riehl. Police were immediately called to the business, located
on the 500 block of Wynnefield Ave. However, Hong was dead by
the time they arrived.
Investigators surmised that he had been
shot to death shortly before the store opened. One of
Hong’s white Chevrolet Astro delivery vans had been
stolen at the time, leading authorities to believe that robbery
was the motive for the murder.
Hong, who was a deacon in his local
church, had worked at Betty Brite Cleaners for about over seven
years. One shocked neighbor said that he believed Hong had
never kept more than $200 in the store.
Within hours of the crime, police had
provided the local media with a description of the stolen
delivery van and its license plate number.
The van was discovered when Joyce Fineberg
of the department’s Information Systems Unit
dispatched a police car to investigate the area of 30th
and Berks Streets in Strawberry Mansion — a place
already visited by police who had not spotted the van.
Fineberg had opted to redispatch a patrol
car based on a hunch she had while reviewing a list of police
cars that had made inquiries about the van on the day after the
murder.
Police found the vehicle less than five
blocks away from the North Philadelphia home of Roscoe Brown,
40, a former employee of the cleaners who was charged with the
murder, as well as various counts of weapons offenses, assault
and related crimes.
Brown had worked for Hong for two weeks
back in September.
“He must not have been a model
employee,” police captain Richard Ross told reporters.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have Mr. Hong to speak to,
to get his take on it.”
Homicide investigators believe that Brown
had followed Hong through the back door of his plant when he
was opening it up that Monday morning. Once inside, he shot him
during a robbery and fled with the stolen delivery van along
with a few hundred dollars.
The local community, including
Hong’s family, employees and neighbors, were all enraged
by the crime. Many described him as a good, hard-working man.
One of Hong’s employees, Henry
Knight, 54, told a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer:
“He was such a nice guy. He was a good boss. Me and him
laugh, joke and fool around. I always told him, ‘Be
careful.’ I knew he was here a lot by himself. He asked
me today to do him a favor and come in early, so I walked up
here and I see this.”
Hong’s uncle, Sang Park, said that
his nephew had arrived from Seoul, South Korea more than ten
years ago. Park had agreed to transfer the business ownership
to him in July.
Park had difficulty comprehending why it
happened. “This is not a jewelry store,” he said.
“This is not a check-cashing business. This is a
drycleaners.”
City Councilman Michael A. Nutter, whose
office is located across the street from Betty Brite, expressed
his disgust, as well.
“A community has been
violated,” he said.
Hong was survived by his wife and two
young sons.
 |