Byung Kim, a 40-year-old merchant from Lawndale, California, was killed on August 19, 1988 after withdrawing $80,000 from a local bank to cash checks for his customers. As he returned to his van he was ambushed by Omar Dent III, identified as a member of the Eight-Trey Crips. Dent shot Kim, fled in Kim’s van, and also shot a retired police officer who tried to intervene.

Omar Dent III was arrested and tried. In 1991 he was convicted of first-degree murder with a robbery special circumstance, but the California Supreme Court overturned that conviction in 2003 because Dent had been improperly denied the right to represent himself, prompting a retrial. At retrial Dent was again found guilty of Kim’s murder and convicted of second-degree robbery, kidnapping for robbery, and attempted murder of the retired officer. The jury deadlocked at penalty phase; prosecutors later removed the death penalty and Dent was sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

Does anyone have additional information about Kim’s life in Lawndale or remembered the businesses he served?