Shop Owner Hit With Egg in Protest Over Flag

WESTMINSTER —  Truong Van Tran, whose attempts to hang a Communist flag in his business have inflamed the Vietnamese community of Little Saigon, was pelted in the face with an egg and spat upon by demonstrators Monday as he tried to reopen his video store.

Police dragged him into a squad car to protect him from the crowd but the 37-year-old Vietnamese immigrant fought the officers at every step.

The latest confrontation unfolded after Tran notified police about 9 a.m. that he intended to reopen HiTek video. With 30 minutes’ notice, Lt. Bill Lewis said, police told him that they could only provide minimal protection.

Police said that to defuse the crowd’s reaction, they told protest organizers that Tran was on his way. Lewis said officers hoped that with some warning the crowd would remain orderly and controlled.

But the group of 80 to 100 protesters screamed as Tran arrived in a private car and made his way to the store’s entrance. He never got there. Pinned against the display window, with angry protesters jabbing South Vietnamese flags in his direction, Tran was hit squarely in the face with an egg.

As the crowd pushed toward him, a group of peaceful demonstrators moved to surround the slight man and help him back out of the crowd. Even then, Tran struggled with police officers trying to remove him from the scene, ending up in the back of a squad car still kicking and trying to get away.

Tran was treated at Huntington Beach Hospital and released.