Officer Who Lost Partner in Chinatown Heist Testifies

Speaking in a calm, almost relaxed, manner, Los Angeles Police Officer Archie Nagao testified Monday about a furious gun battle in Chinatown in which his partner, Duane Johnson, and two gunmen were killed in December, 1984.

Nagao, who survived a bullet wound to the neck, and Johnson, 27, had entered the Jin Hing Co. jewelry store in response to a silent robbery alarm when the man who let them into the locked shop suddenly walked toward Nagao and lifted a gun toward the officer’s head.

“He extended his hand about two feet (and) I would say (the gun) was approximately a foot from my head,” Nagao, 31, told jurors at the murder trial of Hau Cheong Chan, 31, of Alhambra, and Sang Nam Chinh, 21, of Rosemead. “He pointed toward me, I heard a shot and I felt a burning sensation in my neck. At that point, I . . . returned fire.”

Fatal Chest Wounds

The assailant, whom authorities have identified as Peter Chin, fell to the ground, suffering fatal chest wounds. Nagao, meanwhile, took cover behind a display case and reloaded his revolver.

Then, while bleeding from the neck, Nagao engaged in a second exchange of gunfire with a man he told the jurors he was unable to identify. Prosecutors say the second assailant was defendant Chinh, who had bullet wounds on his head, back and chin when he was arrested a day later.

Nagao said that he lost sight of Johnson a few seconds before the shooting erupted and never saw him again. Johnson, who suffered gunshot wounds to the head and neck, was pronounced dead at County-USC Medical Center about an hour after the early afternoon incident.

Chinh and Chan each are charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Johnson, Chin and another man, Robert Woo, who police say was shot by shop owner Leon Lee during the incident. Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Longo contends that Chinh shot Johnson and that Chan masterminded the holdup and was in the store when it occurred. Chan’s lawyers contend that their client never entered the shop on Bamboo Lane.

Nagao, who will return to the witness stand today for cross-examination, was asked at one point Monday by Longo to approach the jurors and let them see the two marks on his neck--perilously close to the carotid arteries--where a bullet entered and exited.

Outside the courtroom, in an interview with The Times, the nine-year police veteran said the psychic scars of the gun battle have proved as long-lasting as the physical ones.

“There’s always that little thing behind your head that will always be there--you always remember things . . . every time you respond to a robbery,” Nagao said.

Following a short recuperation period, Nagao, a bachelor who grew up in Boyle Heights, returned to the department’s Central Division, where he worked at a desk job.

“It took me a while to get back into things,” he said.

Last year, however, Nagao returned to the field. He now walks a beat in downtown Los Angeles.

“He has evidenced a tremendous strength of character and he’s handling the full responsibilities of a police officer with no difficulties at all,” Area Commanding Officer Rick Batson said Monday.

Nagao, who shortly after the shoot-out summoned reporters to his hospital bedside to say that he and Johnson “did our best,” spoke self-effacingly Monday about the Medal of Valor that he wears over his blue uniform and the bullet-proof vest he has taken to wearing.

“It beats me why they gave it to me,” he said. “Lot of other guys do the same thing too.”

Easy-Going Manner

Nagao also exhibited an easy-going manner in court Monday, both on and off the stand. During a brief, closed discussion at the bench between the judge and attorneys, Nagao, seated at the witness stand, turned on his police radio, which he was wearing on his belt along with his revolver.

“Everybody was talking about something else while I was stuck up there so . . . I had to listen to something,” he explained outside court later.

Also in the courtroom Monday, as a spectator, was Johnson’s widow, Kathleen, who gave birth to the couple’s only child three weeks after her husband was shot.

“I wanted to be here for Duane . . . and to support Archie too,” she said.

Her daughter, now 2 years old, “has been my strength,” Mrs. Johnson added. “She’s the spitting image of her father.”