NEWS
May 23, 1993 | ELSTON CARR
When Latasha Harlins was killed in a dispute over a bottle of orange juice at the Empire Liquor Market on March 16, 1991, the convenience store became the focal point for community protest and news coverage. But two years later, much of the attention has waned and the market, closed since the 15-year-old Harlins was shot by grocer Soon Ja Du, is a dumping ground. Area residents say it has deteriorated into an eyesore that attracts drug dealers, prostitutes and vagrants.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 1, 1993 | PENELOPE McMILLAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
When Denise Harlins thinks back to the point when her life veered onto a course she never imagined, she remembers sitting in a Los Angeles courtroom at a bail hearing for Soon Ja Du. The Korean-born grocer had shot to death Harlins' 15-year-old niece, Latasha, on March 16, 1991, in South Los Angeles, in a dispute over a bottle of orange juice. At the hearing, Harlins sat with her family and a few friends as Du pleaded not guilty to murder.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 14, 1992
Nearly one year after a Korean-born grocer was sentenced to five years probation for the killing of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins, a small group of family members and friends demonstrated outside the Federal Building in Westwood on Friday. "We will never let people forget the death of this child, until justice is achieved," said Gina Rae, leader of the Justice for Latasha Harlins Committee.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
July 29, 1992 | ANDREA FORD, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The younger siblings of Latasha Harlins, the teen-ager who was fatally shot last year by grocer Soon Ja Du, will split a $300,000 court settlement from Du's insurance company, but the children's father will receive nothing, a judge ruled Tuesday. The ruling closes another chapter in a case that heightened tensions among Korean-born merchants and their customers in South Los Angeles last year and which, many believe, contributed to the recent riots.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
July 17, 1992 | PHILIP HAGER, TIMES LEGAL AFFAIRS WRITER
The state Supreme Court, ending a divisive, racially charged legal battle, on Thursday let stand Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joyce A. Karlin's decision granting probation to a Korean-born grocer in the videotaped fatal shooting of a black teen-ager. In a brief order, the court refused to review an appellate ruling upholding the sentence issued by Karlin in November. The justices turned down an appeal by Los Angeles Dist. Atty.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
July 9, 1992
The family of a 15-year-old black girl slain by a Korean grocer will receive about $300,000 in settlement of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, an attorney said. Soon Ja Du's insurance company agreed to pay "a little over $300,000" to the brother and sister of Latasha Harlins, said Charles Lloyd, Du's attorney. Harlins was shot and killed by Du during a confrontation in March, 1991, over whether the youth had paid for a bottle of orange juice in a store owned by the Du family.