Father’s Arraignment Set in Strangling of Infant

A Sept. 17 arraignment was set Tuesday for a Rowland Heights divinity student accused of strangling his 3-month-old son while his wife was at work.

Chong Kuk Park, 30, was arrested Sunday and charged with the first-degree murder of his son after an autopsy revealed that the infant had been battered and strangled, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department officials said.

Park, who emigrated from South Korea five months ago and is a graduate divinity student at a school in Whittier, last Wednesday took the lifeless boy to his wife’s San Gabriel Valley office, Sgt. Stanley White said.

The wife alerted authorities, who initially suspected the child was a victim of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. But after they interviewed Park and read the autopsy report, he was charged with murder and was being held in Los Angeles County Jail without bail.