Wide Manhunt On for New CHP Slaying Suspect

FULLERTON —  Police fanned out across Southern California on Tuesday to catch the killer of the CHP officer gunned down last weekend, as they tried to explain the mistaken arrest of a man picked up near the officer’s abandoned cruiser.

Fullerton Police Chief Patrick E. McKinley interrupted a City Council meeting to announce that police had issued a nationwide bulletin for a new suspect in the shooting of Officer Don Burt, a 25-year-old rookie with a pregnant wife.

Police identified the new suspect as Hung Thanh Mai, a 25-year-old Southern California man and said they have evidence linking him to the crime scene.

The chief said Mai sometimes carries an assault rifle, wears a bullet-proof vest and uses aliases. McKinley said he issued a nationwide bulletin for Mai “because he is so very dangerous.”

“We very strongly believe that he’s the guy,” Lt. Jeff Roop said.

Mai’s whereabouts were unknown Tuesday. His last known address was in Anaheim, but he has also lived recently in Fountain Valley and Long Beach, Roop said.

Mai has an outstanding $25,000 warrant for charges of aggravated assault in Orange County, Roop said. He has convictions for forgery, burglary, illegal possession of firearms and assault with a deadly weapon, court records show.

Investigators said they issued the bulletin for Mai on Saturday night, even as they arrested another suspect who they have since released.

“He’s been a potential suspect all along,” Roop said. “We just follow the evidence. As it gets stronger with some and weaker with others, it either incriminates them or exonerates them. [Mai] became a stronger and stronger suspect.”

At least 25 officers from the Fullerton Police Department and the California Highway Patrol spent Tuesday interviewing witnesses, checking leads and looking for clues that might lead to Burt’s killer.

The intensified search came a day after the abrupt release of Young Ho Choi, a 32-year-old painting contractor who was arrested early Sunday near Burt’s squad car. Choi was set free Monday night after a mounting weight of evidence convinced police they had the wrong man.

Choi, a Buena Park resident who had been working in Palm Springs, walked away from the Fullerton City Jail after fingerprint and gunpowder tests did not link him to crime. Police said they arrested Choi after “several” eyewitnesses identified Choi as being present near the cruiser when it was abandoned in Anaheim.

“The evidence was not there, so we released him,” Fullerton Police Sgt. David Stanko said. “There is no indication that he is still a suspect.”

Officer Burt was killed Saturday night shortly after he pulled over a white BMW headed south on the Orange Freeway in Fullerton. Police say they don’t know why Burt pulled the car over, but the officer quickly discovered that the license of the driver was suspended.

Whoever killed Burt shot him six times, then fired a seventh round into his skull. Several witnesses watched the execution-style killing from the parking lot of a nearby Coco’s restaurant. The killer left behind the BMW and fled in Burt’s cruiser. He abandoned that car a few miles down the road in Anaheim.

Choi and another man were picked up by police near the abandoned patrol car soon afterward.

Then, in an attempt to identify the killer, the police stood Choi up against a squad car, shined a flashlight in his face, and drove witnesses in other police vehicles past him.

Police say that some witnesses told them that Choi looked like the man who had been near Burt’s abandoned car. “We arrested him based on witness statements and interviews,” Stanko said.

Stanko said he did not know how many witnesses had identified Choi as the gunman, or how many, if any, said Choi was not the man.

One witness, who asked that her name be withheld because the suspect is still at large, said she saw a man who did not appear to be a police officer driving Burt’s squad car on the Orange Freeway at the time of the slaying.

She told police she got a clear glimpse of the driver, and when she saw Choi’s face later, she said, she knew he was not the person.

“I got a good profile of him,” said the woman, who was driving on the freeway when the squad car passed by. “That was definitely not the person. “[Choi] was a lot older.”

Stanko declined to divulge whose driver’s license Burt checked on the police computer before he died. When Burt searched the BMW Saturday night, police say, he discovered several phony traveler’s checks in the trunk.

Some witnesses told reporters late Saturday at the crime scene that the male who was near Burt’s car was a teenager. Choi is a young-looking 32.

“We held Choi until he was eliminated as a suspect,” Stanko said, adding that police had ample evidence to keep Choi in custody.

“When we look at suspects, and we have eyewitness identification and statements, that gives police officers enough to arrest,” he said.

Lt. Roop said officers often detain suspects for on-the-scene identification. “If you catch a suspect in the area and you have the witnesses or victim nearby, you bring them by and say, ‘Is this the fellow?’ ” he said.

Meanwhile, leaders of Orange County’s Korean community said they felt saddened at Burt’s death, but relief when they learned that Choi, who emigrated from Korea, was free.

As late as Monday evening, before Choi was released, the Korean American Assn. of Orange County had planned to publicly apologize for “one of our own.”

“We made several phone calls to the Police Department and at the time, they said they were certain they had the right person,” said Young Kim, vice chair of the Korean American Assn. “We wanted the community-at-large to know we’re truly sorry.”

Choi’s release left them relieved.

“His reputation has been brought to the bottom of the pit,” Kim said. “But we’re just breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn’t one from our community.”

Still, they said they were upset that Choi’s arrest had tarnished the community’s image. Dr. Koo Oh, president of the association, said Tuesday night that he and others are demanding a meeting with the police chief to seek an apology and to learn why the arrest happened and how something like this can be prevented from happening again.

Oh questioned why the police had made Choi’s name public when the investigation had barely begun.

“We can understand the police acting,” Oh said. “But I think they should investigate more before telling the media it’s him. I think his life is damaged now.”

Oh and association members held a news conference Tuesday night to extend their condolences to the Burt family and to announce they were taking up a collection for the slain officer’s memorial fund.

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writer Lily Dizon and correspondents Mimi Ko Cruz and Jeff Kass.