Man Charged With Murder After Elderly Victim Beaten, Set on Fire in Downtown LA
If convicted as charged, Lavonta Wilder faces up to life in state prison
LOS ANGELES — A man was charged today with murder in the killing of an 84-year-old Korean man living with dementia who had wandered from a convalescent home before being brutally beaten and set on fire in downtown Los Angeles.
“This case involves an elderly man who was disoriented and living with dementia, conditions that made him particularly vulnerable. Our thoughts are with the victim’s family as they endure this unimaginable tragedy,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said. “The level of violence alleged here is brutal, callous and extreme, and our prosecutors will pursue this case with the urgency it demands to ensure accountability and justice for the victim and his loved ones.”
Lavonta Martel Wilder (dob 8/26/85), a transient, is charged with one count of murder and faces a special allegation of having a prior serious felony in case 26CJCF02476. His arraignment was continued today to May 21 in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Bail was set at $2,050,000.
On April 19 at approximately 11:55 p.m., the victim, Bang Cho, was seated on Sixth Street between Hope Street and Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles when he stood up and briefly approached a passerby then walked behind Wilder and grabbed one of the bags Wilder was carrying. Wilder is accused of then viciously punching and kicking Cho in the head and body, lifting him over his shoulder and slamming him to the ground — before setting him on fire.
Cho was transported to a hospital, where he died the following day.
Wilder was later located on Sixth Street, north of Hope Street, and taken into custody.
If convicted as charged, Wilder faces up to life in state prison.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Karb of the Arson and Explosives Section. The investigation remains ongoing by the Los Angeles Police Department.
The charges in this case are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Man Charged With Murder After Elderly Victim Beaten, Set on Fire in Downtown LA
If convicted as charged, Lavonta Wilder faces up to life in state prison
LOS ANGELES — A man was charged today with murder in the killing of an 84-year-old Korean man living with dementia who had wandered from a convalescent home before being brutally beaten and set on fire in downtown Los Angeles.
“This case involves an elderly man who was disoriented and living with dementia, conditions that made him particularly vulnerable. Our thoughts are with the victim’s family as they endure this unimaginable tragedy,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said. “The level of violence alleged here is brutal, callous and extreme, and our prosecutors will pursue this case with the urgency it demands to ensure accountability and justice for the victim and his loved ones.”
Lavonta Martel Wilder (dob 8/26/85), a transient, is charged with one count of murder and faces a special allegation of having a prior serious felony in case 26CJCF02476. His arraignment was continued today to May 21 in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Bail was set at $2,050,000.
On April 19 at approximately 11:55 p.m., the victim, Bang Cho, was seated on Sixth Street between Hope Street and Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles when he stood up and briefly approached a passerby then walked behind Wilder and grabbed one of the bags Wilder was carrying. Wilder is accused of then viciously punching and kicking Cho in the head and body, lifting him over his shoulder and slamming him to the ground — before setting him on fire.
Cho was transported to a hospital, where he died the following day.
Wilder was later located on Sixth Street, north of Hope Street, and taken into custody.
If convicted as charged, Wilder faces up to life in state prison.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Karb of the Arson and Explosives Section. The investigation remains ongoing by the Los Angeles Police Department.
The charges in this case are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Japanese Australians (日系オーストラリア人, Nikkei Ōsutoraria-jin) are Australian citizens and residents who claim Japanese ancestry.
Japanese people first arrived in the 1870s (despite a ban on emigration in place until 1886). During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Japanese migrants played a prominent role in the pearl industry of north-western Australia. By 1911, the Japanese population while small groups had grown to approximately 3,500 people. With the outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1941, most Japanese in Australia were interned and then deported when the war ended. At the end of the war only 74 Japanese citizens and their children were permitted to remain in Australia. Not until the 1970s did the Japanese population recover to the levels at the start of the 20th century.[3] As of 2011, of Australia's 35,378 Japan-born residents, more than 65% had arrived from the mid-1990s onwards.[2]
According to a global survey conducted at the end of 2013, Australia was the most popular country for Japanese people to live in.[4]
History
The first person from Japan to settle in Australia was recorded in 1871.[2]
Japanese only began to emigrate en masse in the 1880s following the lifting of restrictions. In Australia, the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 temporarily prevented more Japanese from migrating, but subsequent exemptions to the dictation test were applied to Japanese people mitigating restrictions.
In Australia from the late 19th and early 20th Century many worked as pearlers in Northern Australia or in the sugar cane industry in Queensland. They were particularly prominent in the Western Australian Kimberley town of Broome, where until the Second World War they were the largest ethnic group. Several streets of Broome have Japanese names, the town has one of the largest Japanese cemeteries outside Japan and the creole languageBroome Pearling Lugger Pidgin contained many Japanese words.
Between December 1941 and September 1945, Australia and Japan were at war. On July 28, 1941, Australian military intelligence indicated that there were 1139 Japanese living in Australia and 36 in Australian-controlled territories. Under the guise of national security, 1141 Japanese civilians (almost the entire population) living in Australia were interned for up to six years throughout WWII. An additional 3160 Japanese civilians arrested in allied countries across the Asia-Pacific Region were also interned in Australia on a user-pay basis; this included 600 Formosans (Taiwanese). An unknown number of Koreans were arrested as Japanese and carried Japanese names. The internment of Japanese in Australia was more racial than political, with Japanese being "evacuated" from their hometowns "for their own good" (i.e., to prevent racist attacks against them by non-Japanese). Several months after the cessation of hostilities, all ethnic-Japanese internees who did not possess Australian nationality were repatriated to Occupied Japan, regardless of the locations of their previous abodes, whilst all ethnic-Formosans were repatriated to Occupied Formosa.[5]
Demography
People born in Japan as a percentage of the population in Sydney divided geographically by postal area, as of the 2011 census.One dot represents 100 Japanese-born residents in Melbourne
The 2021 census recorded 45,267 Japanese-born residents in Australia, with 78,054 people reporting Japanese ancestry (including those who claimed other ancestries). Of this number 58,755 reporting speaking Japanese at home. New South Wales had the largest population of Japanese born (14,894), followed by Queensland (13,236), Victoria (9,251), Western Australia (4,716), and South Australia (1,640).[6] Only 9,734 Japanese-born residents have since acquired Australian citizenship representing 21.5% of the community. In 2021, women represented 70% (31,723) of the Japanese-born in Australia.[2]
Over half of all Japanese-born residents profess no religious affiliation (66.8%), with Buddhism (17.8%) and Christianity (3.1%) the most commonly identified religions. [7]
In Northern Australia (Broome, Darwin, Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Torres Strait) many Indigenous and non-Indigenous families claim descent from Japanese pearl luggers and sugar-cane cutters who settled in these areas before 1901.
Locations of full-time and part-time Japanese schools in Australia designated by the Japanese Ministry of Education (gray dots refer to closed schools)
Department of Immigration and Citizenship (February 2014). "Community Information Summary"(PDF). Department of Social Services. Australian Government. Archived from the original(PDF) on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
"平成 26(2014)年度" (Archive). The Japanese Language Supplementary School of Queensland. Retrieved on April 1, 2015. p. 4.
"学校名称." Adelaide Japanese Community School. Retrieved on April 7, 2015. Old URL
Home page (Archive). Cairns Japanese Language Tutorial Centre Inc. Retrieved on April 7, 2015.
"学校概要" (Archive). Canberra Japanese Supplementary School Inc. Retrieved on 7 April 2015.
Further reading
Sato, Machiko (2001), Farewell to Nippon: Japanese Lifestyle Migrants in Australia, Japanese society series, Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, ISBN978-1-876843-72-4
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