THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020600
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
A refugee from Vietnam who had achieved the American Dream as the owner of two Virginia Beach bars was one of four people slain late Thursday in the worst mass killing in the resort city's history.
LamVan Son, 41, drove a Mercedes, lived in an upscale home in the 900 block of Summerwind Road and went to neighborhood pool parties with his 38-year-old Vietnamese wife, Lanna, and 4-year-old son, Joshua.
In March, the Sons bought the Witchduck Inn in the Pembroke Crossing Shoppes in the 4600 block of Pembroke Blvd., where LamVan Son was slain Thursday. A year earlier, they purchased Lanna's Village Inn at 1588 Parkway Shopping Center off Lynnhaven Parkway. Both are restaurant-bars with pool tables and juke boxes located in strip shopping centers that cater to blue-collar patrons. Regulars said Friday they appreciated the friendly atmosphere the Sons cultivated at both taverns.
That atmosphere changed late Thursday at the Witchduck Inn. Sometime between 10 p.m. and midnight, LamVan Son was shot to death while Joshua rested in an adjoining room. The child was unhurt.
Also killed were two employees, Karen S. Rounds, 31, of the 4100 block of Marblehead Drive and Wendel G. Parrish Jr., 32, of the 4800 block of Peach Creek Lane; and a bar patron, Abdelaziz Gren, 34, of the 700 block of Severn Drive.
The shooting victims were discovered by a customer who tried to enter the front door, found it locked and then entered through a rear door. Son and Parrish were dead. Rounds died at Sentara Bayside Hospital and Gren died at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
Police sealed off the Witchduck Inn as crime-scene technicians huddled with police investigators. Several off-duty bar employees and patrons who had been in the bar earlier Thursday night hurried to the scene upon learning of the killings and were promptly interviewed by detectives.
The bar remained sealed late Friday, and police had not reported a motive for the slayings. They also were quiet about any leads or suspects.
Someone put up a sign outside the Witchduck Inn, requesting that anyone with information regarding the killings call Virginia Beach Crime Solvers at 427-0000. The sign offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Several regular customers of the bar and some relatives of those killed said that Son and at least one employee had been worried that the bar had been cased by a suspicious man in the days leading up to the slayings.
``There was this man who just got out of prison in there a couple of times and they were afraid of him,'' said Forest Miller, 43, whose wife, Dottie, works as a waitress at the Witchduck Inn. ``We don't know who he was, we just heard that the police are looking for him.''
Miller said that he and his wife, who did not work Thursday, were at the bar as customers from about 5 p.m. until 10 p.m., when they left for home.
``Everything was normal on Thursday,'' he said. ``Everything was quiet. In fact, it was kind of a dull night.''
Miller said that when he and his wife left, Son, Parrish and Rounds were the only people in the bar. Parrish, who worked as a handyman at the bar and was staying with Miller and his wife on Peach Creek Lane, had left the bar earlier in the evening and then returned just as the Millers were leaving, Miller said.
Sometime after the Millers went home, Gren apparently came to the bar. His red Camaro remained parked there Friday.
Gren, who lived with his sister and brother-in-law and worked at their restaurant, The Pizza Chef Inn on Independence Boulevard, was a regular customer at the Witchduck Inn.
``He went there because it was close,'' said Jim Garcia, Gren's brother-in-law, who brought Gren to the United States from Morocco 24 years ago after marrying Gren's sister. ``He was never in any trouble with drugs or anything.''
Garcia, a retired insurance agent who has helped bring his wife's family to the United States, said he had planned to take Gren and the rest of the family to visit Morocco this August. He said he now plans to wait to tell Gren's father, who is still in Morocco, about the slaying when they visit at the end of the summer.
``I feel horrible, I made a commitment to the family,'' Garcia said. ``I told them we have a wonderful country with lots of opportunity.''
Parrish, known by friends as J.R., had just returned to Hampton Roads two weeks ago after spending time as a roofer in Roanoke.
``J.R. was a nice guy, everybody like him,'' Miller said. ``He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.''
Until March, Rounds had been working as a nurse at Maryview MedCare Center in Chesapeake, according to her husband, Kevin Rounds. She quit so she could return to school and was working at the Witchduck Inn to help make ends meet.
``It was just for extra spending money, so she could go to school,'' said Rounds, who serves in the Navy at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.
H.V. Le, LamVan Son's brother-in-law, said that he first met Son soon after they both arrived in the United States from Vietnam. They both were working as laborers in Lynchburg when Son fell in love with Le's sister and married her. All three eventually moved to Hampton Roads to be near other relatives.
``We never talked much about what he did in Vietnam,'' said Le, 35. ``He may have been one of those boat people.''
Le, an engineer with Virginia Power, said he did not know how Son got the money to buy his bars.
``I guess he had wanted to open a business for a long time,'' Le said. ``He pretty much fixed it up from scratch.'' ILLUSTRATION: LAMVAN SON
The 41-year-old owner of The Witchduck Inn was a Vietnam refugee. He
and his wife also owned Lanna's Village Inn.
ABDELAZIZ GREN
The 34-year-old native of Morocco had been in the U.S. since he was
10 years old. Gren, a Witchduck Inn patron, worked at a Beach
restaurant with his family.
WENDEL G. PARRISH JR.
The 32-year-old Hampton Roads native recently worked in Roanoke as a
roofer. He was a handyman at the Witchduck Inn.
KAREN S. ROUNDS
The 31-year-old Pennsylvania native tended bar at The Witchduck Inn.
Until March, Rounds worked as a registered nurse. She planned to
return to school.
Seen through the Venetian blinds of a window, the body of a gunshot
victim lies on a counter under a dartboard at the Witchduck Inn
early Friday morning.
JOHN C. BELL/Photos
Joshua Son, 4, is escorted from the Witchduck Inn early Friday
morning. He was in an adjoining room of the bar when his father was
shot, but was unhurt.
JOHN C. BELL
Beach police investigate the scene of a quadruple slaying at the
Witchduck Inn at the Pembroke Crossing Shoppes.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING FATALITIES by CNB