CHUONG DUONG TONG | Texas Death Row | Shot and killed an off-duty police officer during the robbery of a food store | ALS

Chuong Tong. Typed Letter, Signed. Typed, Commercial #10 (4.125 × 9.5 envelope). North Houston, TX. Pmk: September 6, 2023. Content unknown. SEALED.

• Classification: Murderer

• Characteristics: Robbery

• Number of victims: 1

• Date of murder: April 6, 1997

• Date of birth: October 21, 1976 (age 47)

• Victim profile: C.H. Trinh (off-duty police officer)

• Method of murder: Shooting

• Location: Harris County, Texas, USA

• Status: Sentenced to death on April 1, 1998ⁱ

A Harris County jury convicted Chuong Duong Tong of capital murder in March 1998 and a judge sentenced him to death.

The jury found Tong guilty of killing Houston police Officer Tony Trinh, who was off duty working at his parents' Houston convenience store on April 6, 1997, when Tong entered, pulled a Glock handgun and demanded Trinh's wallet and jewelry.

"Tong attempted to open the cash register. Trinh then identified himself as a police officer, showed Tong his badge, and told Tong that he 'was not going to get away with this.' Tong shot Trinh once in the head at close range," according to U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas' summary in her Sept. 30 order.

Tong stole Trinh's jewelry and fled to a waiting car.

Police arrested Tong, then 21, several months later and he was charged with capital murder. He claimed in a statement he gave police that he accidentally shot Trinh while jumping over the store counter.

He said he took apart the gun after fleeing from the store and showed police the storm drains where he dumped threw the parts.

"While in a jail holding tank, Tong told a fellow inmate, Stephen Mayeros, why he was in jail," Atlas' 78-page ruling states. "Mayeros asked Tong how close he was when he shot Trinh, and Tong responded by touching his finger to Mayeros's forehead and saying 'bang.' When Mayeros asked Tong if he felt bad about killing Trinh, Tong replied that he felt terrible and cried himself to sleep, and then laughed."

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