Pizza deliveryman shot dead in Richmond
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
(11-27) 07:55 PST RICHMOND -- Thanh Thach was trying to save up enough money to bring his mother to the United States from their native Cambodia. After losing a temporary job with the U.S. Postal Service, he landed a job a month ago delivering pizzas at night in the Richmond area.
Thach, 38, was on his cell phone, trying to find an address in Richmond on Monday night, when he was shot and killed during a possible robbery attempt, police said Tuesday. He died just two months after becoming a U.S. citizen.
As his wife mourned the loss of the father of two young boys, police sought clues and offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the killer.
"This is one of those that really hits home," Lt. Mark Gagan said.
Thach was looking for an address on the 900 block of South 45th Street about 9 p.m. Monday when he was accosted on the 800 block by one or two men, police said. The men shot Thach twice and fled without taking the pizza or anything else.
The motive for the slaying was unclear, although it's possible that it was a "robbery gone bad," Gagan said.
Thach was on his cell phone with the person who ordered the pizza when the phone went dead, Gagan said. Just a few seconds later, the customer heard three shots ring out nearby, he said.
Investigators do not believe the slaying was a setup, as the people who requested the pizza have ordered on at least five occasions. In past years in Richmond, robbers have deliberately ordered pizzas to rob the drivers; in one incident in 2003, a 16-year-old boy suspected of robbing pizza delivery workers was shot and killed after he pointed a fake gun at an undercover officer posing as one.
The people who ordered the pizza Monday night "were very cooperative with the investigation," Gagan said. "They were visibly shaken by the fact that he had been murdered."
Thach worked at the Pizza Hut on San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito, which was closed Tuesday and will halt all deliveries indefinitely when it reopens, the company said.
Thach wanted to bring his widowed mother to the United States from their native Cambodia, said his wife of five years, who didn't want her name used out of concern for her safety. The couple have two sons, ages 3 and 18 months.
Thach had lived in the United States for 13 years and became a citizen Sept. 11, his wife said. She called it the happiest day of his life.
Before going to work for Pizza Hut, Thach had worked at the U.S. Postal Service center on Seventh Street in West Oakland.
"He is a very hard worker," she said. "He loved the kids so much. I feel like - it's unbelievable. I still feel he's alive."
Anyone with information is asked to call police Detective Eric Haupt at (510) 620-6622 or an anonymous tip line at (510) 232-8477.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/28/BA03TJP5C.DTL
This article appeared on page B - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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