Almanac; Shades of Truth

<v TV Announcer>This presentation is an Almanac special report. <v Speaker>[news intro music plays] <v Narrator>The facts are these: on the night of July 24th, 1992, <v Narrator>22-year-old Eric Hicks and a friend stopped at a Chevron station in Fort Bend County. <v Narrator>Working at that store was Hung Nyugen 18-year-old brother of the elder. <v Narrator>An altercation ensued after Hicks' friends stole a beer. <v Narrator>When it was all over, Eric Hicks was dead, shot in the back by Hung Nyugen. <v Narrator>Those are the facts, but what is the truth? <v Narrator>Someone once said there may always be another reality to make fiction of the truth we <v Narrator>think we've arrived at. In this program, we'll search for the truth. <v Narrator>But as you will see, the truth often depends on your particular viewpoint. <v Narrator>The tale begins 6 months before the shooting in the Fort Bend County community of <v Narrator>Briargate, an area of some 2000 middle-class homes. <v Mildred Landry>It's a mixture. It's a flower, you know?

<v Mildred Landry>We have everybody living here. <v Mildred Landry>We have Vietnamese, we've got Blacks, we've got uh Hispanics, we've got Asians. <v Narrator>In February of 1992, Paula Nyugen decided prior gate would be a good place <v Narrator>to go into business. <v Paula Nyugen>When I first look at this store, what it's uh up for sale, I think it's a really <v Paula Nyugen>good location ?be a good store? <v Paula Nyugen>?Inaudible? store, I feel that this business give the family the opportunity to work <v Paula Nyugen>together. And it's important for us to help each other out in a family. <v Narrator>Like many Vietnamese families, the Nyugens escaped from Vietnam in 1979. <v Narrator>Paula's brother Hung was 5 years old. <v Hung Nyugen>All I remember is that there, you know, we're on a boat with <v Hung Nyugen>more than 50 people on there. <v Hung Nyugen>And we're out of foods and waters. <v Hung Nyugen>I think we'd be better off have some education <v Hung Nyugen>like- 'cause in Vietnam, you know, you must be rich you know to go to school.

<v Narrator>And as with most Asian families, Hung always helped out in the family business. <v Hung Nyugen>I've been working like most of my life for <v Hung Nyugen>them. Ever since you know, I was like 11 or 12 years old, I was <v Hung Nyugen>somewhere I got to go help my dad get on a shrimping boat, so. <v Hung Nyugen>And then, ever since that, <v Hung Nyugen>we- we got the store, so I go in there, help them out every time after school. <v Narrator>Hung became a straight A-student and planned a career as a medical technician. <v Narrator>Eric Hicks, on the other hand, had grown up in this area. <v Helen Hicks>Eric was my first-born. <v Helen Hicks>He was a very loving, happy child who <v Helen Hicks>always tried to get the- the zest out of life. <v Helen Hicks>He uh made a lot of friends. <v Helen Hicks>He attracted people to him and he had a lot of friends. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>Eric was basically a quiet person.

<v Reverend T.R. Williams>Kind of stayed in his own little world, he had his own set of friends. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>He was involved in the church. <v Narrator>But Eric had his problems too. <v Narrator>He was on probation on a burglary charge. <v Narrator>Mrs. Hicks and their pastor tried to reach out to him. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>The things that Eric dealt with more than anything was this <v Reverend T.R. Williams>typical thing that young people are dealing with today. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>And that's peer pressure. He couldn't handle peer pressure. <v Helen Hicks>You try to advise your children when you can foresee <v Helen Hicks>something that you don't think is best for them, but you can't always choose for them. <v Narrator>On the night of July 24th, Hung was working in the store with his father, his 9-year-old <v Narrator>brother, and an employee. At about 11:30, Eric and a friend stopped at the store. <v Narrator>Between Hung and what Eric's friends told Reverend Williams, what happened was <v Narrator>this. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>While in the station, 1 of the young men stole a bottle of beer. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>And this young Hung Nyugen pursued this

<v Reverend T.R. Williams>individual, ran him down, got the bottle of back, <v Reverend T.R. Williams>and when he came back, then, at that time, Eric was outside the store <v Reverend T.R. Williams>with the Hung Nyugen's father, I think it was. <v Hung Nyugen>My dad saw that and then came out, so <v Hung Nyugen>I saw he came out with ?inaudible? <v Hung Nyugen>I thought, there's no use for it. <v Hung Nyugen>So I bring it in. And he was out there- Hicks you know, pushin' him. <v Hung Nyugen>So I bring the golf club out you know to scare him, but he <v Hung Nyugen>wasn't. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>Eric took the golf club and he began to swing it. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>He began to swing it at uh the store owners. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>They went back into the store. <v Hung Nyugen>Try to attack us inside the store with the golf club. <v Hung Nyugen>But you know, we duck and then he'd take beers, cans of beers <v Hung Nyugen>and bottles and throw it at us.

<v Hung Nyugen>And you know, my little- little brother was in there. <v Hung Nyugen>He was scared. We were scared. <v Hung Nyugen>Just going crazy. <v Hung Nyugen>Thought we're done- there's an exp- doesn't know what to expect from him next. <v Hung Nyugen>And then he pushed the ?inaudible? <v Hung Nyugen>be outside. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>By this time, Eric's friends had persuaded him to come out of the store. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>He was walking out of the store on the way to the uh truck. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>And as he was moving toward the truck, Hung Nyugen came out of the store <v Reverend T.R. Williams>and shot him in the back with another pistol. <v Hung Nyugen>I shot for him to stop. And he didn't. <v Hung Nyugen>So I went and fired a warning shot. <v Hung Nyugen>He still didn't stop. <v Hung Nyugen>So I fire another shot, that's when it hit him. <v Hung Nyugen>Saw him fall down. <v Hung Nyugen>?I bring in? call for the ambulance. <v Hung Nyugen>Hope and pray he'll be all right.

<v Interviewer>When you shot him, were you- were you shooting to kill him? <v Hung Nyugen>Wasn't intent to kill him. <v Hung Nyugen>I just tried scared him. <v Hung Nyugen>So he'd just leave it and take off. <v Hung Nyugen>You know he's getting closer and <v Hung Nyugen>closer to the car. I guess it's his getaway or something. <v Hung Nyugen>And I don't know if he's gonna come back with a gun and so. <v Hung Nyugen>I was scared. <v Paula Nyugen>But I was very scared because ever- ever since we're doing this business, every time the <v Paula Nyugen>phone ring, I was like, real- I was shaking, 'cause I was <v Paula Nyugen>thinking something- I mean that call from the store. <v Paula Nyugen>And that something could happen up there. <v Paula Nyugen>And so when I heard that phone ring at that time of a night, I was frightened. <v Narrator>Hung was arrested that night by Houston police. <v Narrator>In the fight with Eric, Hung suffered a concussion and a broken foot. <v Narrator>The protest began at the store [protestors in background] the very next day.

<v Sterling Howard>There were some ladies, uh about 3 ladies across the <v Sterling Howard>street, more or less trying to boycott or trying to get something effective going <v Sterling Howard>on there. <v Sterling Howard>Uh I stopped up and had gotten out to get gas and they pretty much shouted out to <v Sterling Howard>not buy any gas there because they shot a black man <v Sterling Howard>in the back last night. <v Sterling Howard>So when I heard them say that, it <v Sterling Howard>was all like someone had shot a spear into me, so to speak. <v Sterling Howard>[protestors in background] So I got on the phone and start making some phone calls, and <v Sterling Howard>people came on out and uh made the thing a <v Sterling Howard>success. <v Protestors>Couldda been you, couldda been you, couldda been you! <v Narrator>The protesters acted within a week to organize the boycott. <v Marty Muhammad>I feel that it's not gonna be successful on a long term because in a few days emotion <v Marty Muhammad>will die down and then things will be back as usual, so I feel that the only way <v Marty Muhammad>you could keep things intact was to identify the

<v Marty Muhammad>people that was the most serious and then try to organize them around the clock <v Marty Muhammad>for that objective. <v Narrator>But not everyone supported the boycott. <v Ila Warren>Well, to be honest, I was furious because I felt this was an intrusion <v Ila Warren>on our privacy, in other words, an invasion of our privacy. <v C.T. Wint>Well, at first, I couldn't understand why they had organized the protest <v C.T. Wint>so fast, when the details were not clearly known. <v Narrator>From the beginning, Paula Nyugen had received support from Rusche Distributing, the <v Narrator>company that handled the leasing of the stores for Chevron. <v Cal McIntosh>Our perception of the protests was some- <v Cal McIntosh>some radical people out there jumping on some type <v Cal McIntosh>of a cause. <v Cal McIntosh>And we did at that point and of course, did not agree with what they were doing. <v Cal McIntosh>Unfortunately, we've had some experience with shootings and convenience stores you know <v Cal McIntosh>in- in Houston. That is unfortunately not uncommon.

<v Narrator>But the protest forced Paula Nyugen to shut down her store. <v Cal McIntosh>Initially, there were some fears of some violence in the community. <v Cal McIntosh>We were hearing through indirectly, through some constable deputies that <v Cal McIntosh>some people were talking about burning the store down or drive-by shootings or something <v Cal McIntosh>to that effect. <v Paula Nyugen>I couldn't afford to have my family members behind the- the- the counter, <v Paula Nyugen>when the other- when the boycotters just outside the store. <v Paula Nyugen>You know, they making threatens, they saying that if we don't close the store, we're <v Paula Nyugen>going to have some gang member drive-by shootings and all this thing. <v Narrator>Although the store had closed, the protest continued. <v Narrator>But Eric Hicks' mother asked publicly through her pastor that the protesters not <v Narrator>use her son's name. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>It's not that we were standing against the protesters. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>We didn't even know what they were really about. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>The thing that we stood against was that this incident had happened. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>And now all of a sudden, individuals are using this incident

<v Reverend T.R. Williams>to launch some personal <v Reverend T.R. Williams>platform. And we didn't want Eric's name and the <v Reverend T.R. Williams>Hicks family name linked with that. <v Helen Hicks>I didn't agree with the fact that they didn't get my permission to <v Helen Hicks>go and do this in the name of Eric Hicks. <v Helen Hicks>Now, they felt they had a cause. I can't completely say they were wrong because <v Helen Hicks>I didn't look at it as a racial situation. <v Helen Hicks>I just think that it would have happened, whatever <v Helen Hicks>black, white, brown, whatever color I didn't look at as a racially motivated situation. <v Interviewer>So you don't think that Eric was shot because he was black? <v Helen Hicks>No, I do not think he was shot because he was black. <v Narrator>It seemed inevitable that the issue of race would be raised across the country. <v Narrator>Relations have been strained as Asians open businesses in black communities, often <v Narrator>areas where no one else wants to work. <v Narrator>During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, many Asian businesses were looted <v Narrator>and many Asians fought back.

<v Protestor>If black men are constantly killed, consistently killed, <v Protestor>senselessly, then what's gonna happen to our children? <v Paula Nyugen>If we weren't Asian, it wouldn't happened. <v Paula Nyugen>These thing- these protesters wouldn't be there. <v Paula Nyugen>'Cause most of them don't know exactly what happened that night. <v Paula Nyugen>They'd be there just because you know they- they hate Asians. <v Marty Muhammad>It's sad that we live in a society of 400 years of being <v Marty Muhammad>victimized by racism, being the product of racism. <v Marty Muhammad>And then when we take a stand to try to defend ourselves, the very- <v Marty Muhammad>often time the very people that have practiced racism on everybody accuses <v Marty Muhammad>us now being racism- racist, because we try to defend ourselves <v Marty Muhammad>against practices that are, in fact, racist. <v Mildred Landry>That is racism. <v Mildred Landry>It's racism and that's it. <v Mildred Landry>And I'm appalled that we would stoop so low- some areas, some residents

<v Mildred Landry>in the area that would go down and literally destroy <v Mildred Landry>an individual's livelihood, which did it for no <v Mildred Landry>reason. <v Al Edwards>Well, I'm not so sure it's- it's racism as it is maybe have been misinformed <v Al Edwards>when some of the foreigners came to this country. <v Al Edwards>You know, maybe they- they misread some of what some of their racist friends maybe <v Al Edwards>had told them that is that uh, you know, that the stigmas that's placed <v Al Edwards>on black folks, which are untrue. <v Narrator>Asian community leader Glenda Joe maintains the situations in Los Angeles and Briargate <v Narrator>are the exception, not the rule. <v Glenda Joe>99 point nine percent of all Asian merchants in the Houston area <v Glenda Joe>have absolutely no problem in their stores. <v Glenda Joe>They have very good customer relations and they understand the American marketplace <v Glenda Joe>very well. They understand that their bottom line relates to <v Glenda Joe>their customers' feelings about their stores.

<v Glenda Joe>For that 1 percent, we put the handbook together. <v Narrator>Drawing on her experience working in her father's grocery store as a child, Joe put <v Narrator>together a guidebook for Asian merchants translated into 4 languages. <v Glenda Joe>For example, it's considered rude to be overly familiar, <v Glenda Joe>and we consider that in our culture- in American culture to be courteous. <v Glenda Joe>You know, so there's- there's a lot of like miscommunication. <v Glenda Joe>The other issue I deal with in this is the use of deadly force. <v Glenda Joe>Because that is such an issue, especially here in Texas. <v Narrator>The handbook was written up in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. <v Glenda Joe>This box is filled with a request from- from all over the country, from <v Glenda Joe>municipalities um that are looking at this <v Glenda Joe>issue. There um there's Baltimore, there's New York or San Francisco, <v Glenda Joe>L.A., Tampa, Florida, Cleveland. <v Narrator>Meanwhile, the protesters received reinforcements. <v Sterling Howard>When it had gotten down to where it seemed as though it was-

<v Sterling Howard>it was gonna all be over with, then came the men. <v Sterling Howard>A busload. <v Sterling Howard>Miracles in Motion, Enlightened Chapel. <v Sterling Howard>They heard of our plight, but they did come out there and <v Sterling Howard>help hold the fort down. And oh, what a feeling that was when they arrived. <v Speaker>[singing] <v Narrator>Miracles in Motion is a residential program for drug addicts run by Enlightened Chapel <v Narrator>ministries in Houston. Church leaders seek out addicts on the street and bring them <v Narrator>in to get them off drugs and back into society. <v Narrator>When they heard of the boycott, they decided to become involved. <v Tyrone Evans>The ministry is always attempting to <v Tyrone Evans>make its presence felt on the street in situations <v Tyrone Evans>where there are injustices and situations where people are <v Tyrone Evans>being oppressed uh or really, you know, there's some kind of

<v Tyrone Evans>racism that may be involved, anything like that. <v Narrator>What Evans says he wanted to do was focus attention on how stores can help stop drug <v Narrator>addiction by not selling drug paraphernalia like brillo pads. <v Tyrone Evans>They sell for about a buck per pad. <v Tyrone Evans>And what the addict does with this he'll take this here and put it inside of the stem- uh <v Tyrone Evans>the straight shooter that they smoke out of and it's used as a filter. <v Narrator>The protesters claim Paul Nyugen had also sold cigarettes and alcohol to minors. <v Marty Muhammad>I've seen some of those things myself from that same store. <v Marty Muhammad>I've seen the store owners or the clerks, whoever workin' <v Marty Muhammad>the store actually sells single cigarettes to minors. <v Marty Muhammad>I've seen that. <v Paula Nyugen>They had all those complaints, and accusation about us which <v Paula Nyugen>are wrong. They have no profound evidence about it. <v Paula Nyugen>And even the constable- the constable down the street had no complaints about us. <v Narrator>The addition of the Miracles in Motion picketers raised questions about so-called

<v Narrator>outsiders interfering in Briargate. <v Ila Warren>Everyone was saying they were leaders of Briargate and out of the boycott, <v Ila Warren>I can truly say only about 5 people were really from Briargate. <v Marty Muhammad>There was some people. <v Marty Muhammad>That was on the line that didn't actually live in Briargate. <v Marty Muhammad>That's true. <v Marty Muhammad>The boycott grew out of people that lived in Briargate. <v Marty Muhammad>Those of us that make up the committee live in Briargate. <v Marty Muhammad>So, there was some truth to it, but the truth <v Marty Muhammad>to it was so minor, it was very insignificant. <v Narrator>Paula Nyugen refused to give up. She decided to reopen the store on August 6. <v Paula Nyugen>I feel the supportive of the people in the neighborhood and <v Paula Nyugen>they kept telling me that, don't be afraid. <v Paula Nyugen>We're here for you. <v Cal McIntosh>We decided that we would go through advertising and through <v Cal McIntosh>kind of a reopening, thank

<v Cal McIntosh>the people in Briargate that supported us and supported the store and- and have kind <v Cal McIntosh>of a little a weekend grand reopening. <v Narrator>But the reopening had no effect on the protesters. <v Protestor>We'll not be sold out with cheap advertisment, glasses for free, <v Protestor>hotdogs and drink for free. <v Protestor>We're not for sale. <v Narrator>Paula Nyugen believed she had supporters in the community, but the protesters scared them <v Narrator>off. <v Paula Nyugen>Every time we had people coming- they wanted to come in to support us. <v Paula Nyugen>But then these people, would screaming, yelling, and hollering at them. <v Narrator>Finally, Paula gave up. On August 24th, she sold the store. <v Paula Nyugen>Because of uh what my brother gone through and because of uh my family. <v Cal McIntosh>The uh decision to sell out of the store was Paula's and Paula's <v Cal McIntosh>alone. <v Narrator>But Hung Nyugen's ordeal with just beginning. <v Narrator>The issue of Eric Hicks' shooting was taken before a grand jury. <v Narrator>The district attorney's office asked for an indictment for murder.

<v Gordon White>Basically in a murder indictment says that the individual, intentionally or knowingly, <v Gordon White>only causes the death of another individual. <v Don Bankston>He was shot because of the violence that he committed upon that store and the fear <v Don Bankston>that that young man had of his life due to the violence that had been <v Don Bankston>reaped upon him, the damage to his store and his perceived <v Don Bankston>and apparent danger that he felt from the person who was totally out <v Don Bankston>of control. <v Narrator>3 times the grand jury voted to take no action in the shooting. <v Narrator>The grand jury had been criticized because it had only 10 members. <v Narrator>And there was another problem: none of those 10 members was black. <v Narrator>And that brought more protests. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>The law states that the grand jury must be representative <v Reverend T.R. Williams>of the total community. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>When you look at the community of Fort Bend County, the majority of individuals <v Reverend T.R. Williams>in Fort Bend are minorities. <v Al Edwards>I hadn't even thought about whether it was made up of black, whites, brown or whatever. <v Al Edwards>My position is if he was shot in the back after it was over

<v Al Edwards>out on the parking lot, then there's no reason for foreigners or anyone <v Al Edwards>else to shoot black boys or black men in the back, as if they're dogs or birds. <v Narrator>The grand jury members finally resigned, and a new grand jury was appointed to rehear all <v Narrator>the cases presented to the first 1. <v Narrator>This panel had 6 blacks, 5 whites and 1 Hispanic. <v Narrator>The grand jury was impaneled on October 6th. <v Narrator>On November 16th hug when was indicted for murder. <v Don Bankston>Because of the atmosphere and tension and the method they were chosen, <v Don Bankston>the fact that the other- the uh outside pressures <v Don Bankston>that were put upon to cause disbanding of the first 1 and the formation of <v Don Bankston>the second 1, that that tension and that <v Don Bankston>uh pressure, in my opinion, had to affect them and the way <v Don Bankston>they looked at the case. <v Gordon White>I presented the case the same way to both grand juries. <v Gordon White>Um the same evidence was presented to each. <v Gordon White>They had opportunities to explore what they chose to explore in each instance.

<v Gordon White>And I said the same things to both. I said, if you refuse to return an indictment on this <v Gordon White>case, you will be doing it for other than legal reasons. <v Narrator>But it wasn't over yet. Hung's indictment was thrown out on January 4th because <v Narrator>there were no Asians on the second grand jury. <v Narrator>The case went to yet another grand jury. <v Narrator>This 1 racially mixed. The result on February 8th, Hung Nyugen <v Narrator>was no ?bill? in the case of Eric Hicks' death. <v Paula Nyugen>Oh we are talking and hugging. <v Paula Nyugen>We all cry for what happened to Hung and <v Paula Nyugen>about the good news that we heard. <v Paula Nyugen>It's just been great. I mean, this is uh the happiest moment for <v Paula Nyugen>us ever since that night. <v Hung Nyugen>I'm gonna finish high school and uh go to college. <v Narrator>1 young man is dead. Another will have to live with the fact that he caused that death. <v Narrator>And what is the result of this incident and its aftermath? <v Helen Hicks>I believe in God. And I know that he can work it out in the end.

<v Helen Hicks>And that's the only thing that's sustained me from day to day, my faith. <v Narrator>For Reverend Williams, it was a chance to reach out to Eric's friends. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>There is a lifestyle that is <v Reverend T.R. Williams>counterproductive. There is a lifestyle that leads to <v Reverend T.R. Williams>death and uh degradation. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>It- it- it leads nowhere. <v Reverend T.R. Williams>It leads down a dead-end road, and it doesn't matter how <v Reverend T.R. Williams>smart you think you are or how sharp you think you are, <v Reverend T.R. Williams>that eventually wrong behaviors <v Reverend T.R. Williams>will catch up with you. <v Marty Muhammad>The people of Briargate by and large, supported our effort, that <v Marty Muhammad>mean that there is some degree of bond between what we were doing and what they <v Marty Muhammad>themselves saw. <v Ila Warren>If there is any good, it has escaped me. <v Ila Warren>Because I don't see where the community is any better.

<v Ila Warren>The only thing I can say was better, the boycotters are out of here. <v Narrator>Enlightened Chapel ministries ended up with work from Rusche Distributing. <v Cal McIntosh>We have some work lined up now with the Chevron station, you know pressure washer, <v Cal McIntosh>operating our pressure washing machine. <v Narrator>That didn't sit well with some of the other protesters. <v Reginald Polar>We trusted them. And then we found that, <v Reginald Polar>you know, that sometimes you are motivated more by <v Reginald Polar>selfish and egotistical reasons than motivated by what the <v Reginald Polar>good of- of humanity is. <v Glenda Joe>What the Asian community did learn from this is that it's <v Glenda Joe>not OK to expect the media and the justice system to do its job when it comes to <v Glenda Joe>an Asian being scapegoated. <v Don Bankston>Most importantly, I hope Mr. Nyugen ultimately learns the <v Don Bankston>les- and I hope the lesson is that while the system has its <v Don Bankston>ups and downs, hopefully it will- it will be corrected <v Don Bankston>and it will- the right result will happen and that he will feel that uh

<v Don Bankston>he was right to escape tyranny in Vietnam for the freedom <v Don Bankston>in the United States, and he can get about his life. <v Hung Nyugen>I'm sorry that you know her son is dead. <v Hung Nyugen>I can understand that what she's gone through, losing her son, <v Hung Nyugen>is sad, 'cause my parents gone <v Hung Nyugen>through the same, so almost like the same situation with me. <v Hung Nyugen>I feel sorry for her. <v Helen Hicks>I guess I'm of the belief that had <v Helen Hicks>a different decision had been made from the beginning when it all happened, then maybe <v Helen Hicks>he would still be alive. But then God is the ultimate <v Helen Hicks>and he's spoken, so because I know that I must accept <v Helen Hicks>His will I do accept the fact that he is gone, but it hurts very much. <v Speaker>[credits music plays]