Local News in Brief : Granada Hills Man Slays Son, Pregnant Wife, Kills Himself

Neighbors were bewildered Monday after learning that a Granada Hills man fatally shot his wife and 6-year-old son during the weekend, and then turned a .38-caliber pistol on himself.

The bodies of Ha Myung Chung, 32; his wife, Chan Soon Chung, 30, who was eight months pregnant; and their son, Samuel Chung, were found at 6:15 a.m. Sunday in their home in the 11700 block of Monogram Avenue, said Detective Dean Weingarten of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Weingarten said that the bodies may have been in the house since late Friday night. He said there was no evidence that a struggle had preceded the shootings. Police found the body of the wife in the bathroom. The boy’s body was in the back bedroom with the body of his father, police said.

“We’re treating it as a double homicide and suicide,” Weingarten said.

Chung’s neighbors could not understand the actions of the Korean native, who moved into the Monogram Avenue home about two years ago after immigrating to the United States in the late 1970s.

“I can not fathom what could drive a man to take the life of his own child and wife,” said James Jamrozik, who lives across the street from the Chung home.

“They were wonderful, wonderful people,” said a next-door neighbor.

Based on an interview with a family member, police surmised that business pressures had become too much for Chung. “He hasn’t worked for about a year since he sold a store and has been depressed about it,” Weingarten said. Chung had owned a liquor store.

But Chung apparently was attempting to get back into the liquor store business. On May 20, Chung deposited $225,000 in escrow to buy a store on Devonshire Street, according to Ray Yun, manager of Lucky Escrow of Los Angeles.