One of the three men convicted in the Wah Mee Massacre — the deadliest mass murder in Seattle history— was deported to Hong Kong Tuesday.
Wai-Chiu “Tony” Ng was 24 years old when he entered the Wah Mee gambling club with Benjamin Ng and Willie Mak. Mak was in debt to another club, and enlisted his two accomplices to help him rob the Wah Mee at gunpoint, leaving its 14 occupants for dead.
Judge William Downing, then a prosecuting attorney on the case, recalled his visit to the club after the shootings:
“It was probably the most errie experience I ever had as a prosecuting attorney, going into the scene of the crime, there were still blood stains, things knocked over, unpended. It was chilling to be there,” Downing said in an interview last year with KIRO Radio.
Wai Chin, a card dealer who worked in the club, miraculously survived being shot in the neck and jaw, and later identified and testified against the three young men. Willie Mak and Benjamin Ng were quickly arrested and later convicted of aggravated murder. They’re both serving life sentences.
But Tony Ng eluded police for over 18 months before he was captured in Calgary, British Columbia and brought to trial. He was acquitted of the murder charge, but was convicted of multiple counts of robbery and one count of assault.
In a controversial decision, he was paroled last October, and released into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The parole board said Ng was an “model inmate” who taught drafting classes to fellow inmates made elaborate origami sculptures for charity causes.
At a parole hearing last August, Ng said he wished he’d called the police instead of taking part in the crime, which he claims he was forced into by Mak.
Psychologists have also said that Ng was a low risk to reoffend in the future, and he agreed not to fight deportation if paroled.
Ng was held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement until documents were finally secured from Hong Kong to deport him this week.
Linda Mar, who lost both her parents in the massacre, expressed her unhappiness with Ng’s release from prison back in October:
“We all knew all along that this was going to happen. At least he is not going to stay in the United States,” Mar told KING 5.
Now age 57, Ng was deported on Tuesday and Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that he landed in Hong Kong, where his father still lives, on Wednesday night.
Awesome, good read. I remember that incident as if it was yesterday.