The Murder Victim in 40`s Last September Was A Korean American Female

The local police announced on the 31st the serial assassination that put whole Washington area into trauma and fear started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the victim was a Korean American female.

The CNN quoted the police announcement and reported that the 223 caliber gun found at the suspects` vehicle was found as same as the one used at robber murder happened in a beauty supply shop in Baton Rouge on September 23rd, and the victim was a Korean American female Hong, Ballinger (45), who was the mother of 3 children.

The police announced that after the careful examination of the evident collected from the suspects` vehicle, they confirmed that the suspects were in Baton Rouge at the day of the murder on September 23rd.

The Baton Rouge Police Department announced a week before the Washington serial assassination that Ms. Hong, Ballinger was shot to death at a beauty supply shop in Baton Rouge at around 6:40 in the evening on September 23. Ms. Hong was shot at the moment she got on the car after closing down the shop she owned.

The police investigated as a simple robbery because her husband said right after the incident, “Among her belongings, I cannot find her purse that contains at least 1,000 dollars that she collected today.”

The police, however, expanded the investigation after her husband Mr. Ballinger said after watching the picture of the serial assassination suspect John Lee Malbo (17), “The look of him is similar to the criminal who killed my wife.”

The police assume that Muhammad and Malbo visited Baton Rouge after last summer because Baton Rouge is the place that the suspect John Allan Muhammad (41) went to high school and his relatives and friends, including one of his ex-wives, still lives there.

If the crime in Baton Rouge will be added, Muhammad and Malbo will be charged by the prosecutions of each State and federal government with the charges of killing 10 people and injured 3 people in Virginia, Maryland, Louisiana, and Washington.

Ki-Heung Han eligius@donga.com