In the streaming world, it’s a different story. She said Harlins and Du called each other “bitch.”. “I’d always been taught, ‘Never share what you’re working on if it’s a documentary,’ ” she says. There was no audio on the tape, but the prosecution’s first two witnesses--9-year-old Ismail Ali and his 13-year-old sister Lakeshia Combs--testified that there was a sharp exchange and name-calling by Du and Harlins. Is there anywhere I can see the security camera footage of the Latasha Harlins shooting? “When I was finally in my late twenties and learning about Latasha, I was completely shocked that I’d never heard about her,” the filmmaker told Esquire. She reached across the counter to grab the teen, who in turn punched Du. He said Du feared for her safety because her son had been beaten and forced to pay extortion at the store and she was aware of nearby merchants who had been killed during robberies. Latasha Harlins was a 15-year-old African-American girl who was unlawfully killed by Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean American convenience store-owner. Can it pivot toward inclusivity? Latasha Harlins was shot to death by a Korean store owner who thought she was trying to steal. A police officer testified later that injuries Du received may not have all come from the fight with Harlins. “I wanted them to always know what was going to happen in the film, to be prepared for seeing themselves crying.”, Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and could have faced up to sixteen years in prison for killing Harlins. “We had to put in the time, the dedication, and the work to let this exist fully, because too often her story was just reduced down to these last moments of her life.”, Like us on Facebook to see similar stories, US vaccine rollout envied in Canada; Britain plans return to concerts, sports events: Live COVID-19 updates, The Biden administration launches a $500,000 contest to improve face mask designs. Netflix. Source(s): security camera footage latasha harlins shooting: https://biturl.im/OrXIk. On the morning of March 16, 1991, at Empire Liquor Market on 9127 S. Figueroa Street in South Central Los Angeles, Soon Ja Du stole the promising life of an innocent child through an act of senseless and racially-motivated gun violence. Surveillance video captured the shooting… (Courtesy: KNBC) Harlins' death, and how Korean-Americans became 'the problem' Instead, Judge Joyce A. Karlin sentenced her to five years probation, 400 hours of community service, and a $500 fine, saying that the conclusion of the trial “should be a time for healing.”. Plaschke: UCLA didn’t deserve to get Laettnered after playing like champions vs. Gonzaga. O’Bard and Harlins speak of the struggles Latasha went through—her mother was murdered when she was just nine years old—but they also dwell on the mundane sweetness of her young life, including trips to the pool and the basketball courts, and playing “Stand by Me” on a jukebox at a local burger joint. . The filmmaker deploys experimental reenactments to re-create the memories of two of the women closest to Latasha, her best friend Tybie O’Bard and her cousin Shinese Harlins. The Huntington Library has a history of inequity. The offense carries a maximum prison sentence of 16 years. By Beverly White and Heather Navarro • … Latasha Harlins was a 15-year-old girl who was shot and killed on March 16, 1991 by Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean store owner. The videotape of the incident lasted less than a minute, but showed Harlins and Du grappling at the store counter in a dispute over a bottle of orange juice. It was the shooting in 1991 where the Korean shot the black girl over a bottle juice. Allison instead creates a brief, stirring portrait of the fifteen years that preceded them. Officer Ralph Spinello told the jury that when he entered the store, Du was sitting in a chair behind a counter and her husband started slapping her “at first not so hard, gradually to very hard slaps until I had to stop him . I wanted to look at the video from the security camera that the police used. Then Du picked up a handgun and shot Harlins in the back of the head. On March 16, 1991, 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was shot and killed by a liquor store owner who accused her of stealing. Her defense was an accidental shooting by way of self-defense. Latasha Harlins was fatally shot in the head. Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Harlins' death. He dedicated his track, “Keep Ya Head Up,” to the 15-year-old girl, and put her name in many of his other songs. In the prosecution’s opening statement, Carvajal said the gun used by Du had been altered by someone so that the trigger could be pulled with little pressure. It also shows Du pointing a handgun and Harlins dropping to the floor, mortally wounded. Warning: this video shows graphic content.This is security camera footage from Empire Liquor in South L.A. on March 16, 1991. The best-known fact about Harlins, whose friends and family called her Tasha, is that she was killed over a $1.79 bottle of juice. Because Harlins’ death came just 13 days after the videotaped beating of Rodney King and Du was imposed with a probation, a $500.00 fine and community service for her action, some sources cited the shooting as one of the causes of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. This is not the movies. Although the maximum sentence was 16 years, Judge Joyce Karlin sentenced Du to time served, five years of probation, 400 hours of community service, a $500 restitution, and funeral expenses. Until she saw footage of her best friend being shot to death on the news, O’Bard “never knew what terror was,” she says in the film. The tragic killing of Latasha Harlins is often regarded as one of the precursors of the Los Angeles Riots of 1992. The shopkeeper threw a stool at Latasha, who threw the orange juice on the counter before turning to leave. But that attack wasn’t the only filmed assault that sparked L.A.’s 1992 riots. Henry E. Huntington busted unions and exploited Mexican labor. “She deserves this intimacy.”. Take a look and compare. These two articles are identical in scope with a few details unique to both. ‘They were so innocent’: Orange mass shooting shattered a family business; victims remembered. But Soon Ja Du, the store owner, accused her of shoplifting. "A Love Song for Latasha" is streaming now on Netflix. The sister firmly denied Lloyd’s repeated suggestion that Harlins had threatened to kill Du. The Latasha Harlins Justice Committee called for Karlin, the judge who issued Du’s sentence, to step down. 0 0. Instead of focusing on the circumstances of the teenager’s death through the shorthand often deployed in recounting her story—the orange juice, the video tape—the experimental short, which debuts on Netflix Monday, celebrates her life as told by the women who loved her. . An appeals court voted to uphold the sentence just a week before the acquittal of the policemen who beat King set off the 1992 riots. “So I wanted to rebuild this history and this archive for Latasha, because there are a lot of L.A. natives that still don’t really know who she is.”. Latasha wanted to be a lawyer, but she also wanted to own her own businesses, because she was already familiar with being harassed in stores just because she was a young Black person. For the second time in three months, the people who knew Latasha Harlins best and who miss her most gathered in front of her mural at Algin Sutton Recreation Center. Within view of the store’s security cameras, she was shot in the back of the head by the store owner after a dispute over a bottle of orange juice. In 1991, Soon Ja Du, a Korean store owner, received a light sentence in the shooting death of Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old African-American. In Sophia Nahli Allison’s new short documentary about the girl’s life, A Love Song for Latasha, the footage from the liquor store isn’t featured. The incident happened only two weeks after the videotaped arrest and beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers. UCLA players, stars react to buzzer-beater loss to Gonzaga, Six buzzer-beaters during UCLA coach Mick Cronin’s two-year tenure. In his opening statement, Du’s attorney, Charles Lloyd, contended that Du pulled a handgun in self-defense and accidentally shot Harlins. In March of 1991, 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was killed by one of the owners of the Empire Liquor convenience store in Los Angeles, Calif. Latasha had entered the store to buy a container of orange juice for $1.79 when she was fatally shot by Soon Ja … Latasha, 15, was shot in the back of the head by a Korean woman who owned a South Los Angeles liquor store. Latasha Harlins, however, saw no such justice. Some Koreans and others contend that activists who have called for boycotts at a handful of Korean-owned stores are fanning racial tensions. Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Harlins' death. members. Latasha Harlins and Soon Ja Du--though separated by language, culture and years--shared a common struggle even before a bullet bound their fates in a South Los Angeles liquor store. Now the keepers of his collection are making change with the museum at a critical juncture, Why is Regé-Jean Page leaving Netflix’s ‘Bridgerton?’. The shooting occurred just thirteen days after the recorded beating of Rodney King by L.A.P.D. Some members of Harlins’ family wept as they watched the March 16 shooting on television monitors. “What happens when you don’t show people the footage and the first time they see it is when they’re in the audience?” she says. Harlins hit Du four times and one of the blows caused Du’s eye to swell, Combs said. “The Oriental lady started pulling on her sweater saying: ‘That’s my orange juice,’ ” the boy testified under cross-examination by Du’s lawyer. His museum’s leadership was white for a century. Unified Homes, a business in Orange that was built from the ground up, became the setting for tragedy. Activists protested at her home and … The entire event was captured on the store’s security camera and the tape was used in the trial of Soon Ja Du. In network TV, seeing a breakout star bolt from a hit show would be unusual. Her death happened thirteen days after the videotape of the Rodney King beating was released. Allison was barely preschool aged at the time of Latasha’s death, but though she grew up in South-Central Los Angeles, she knew only of Rodney King as the face of the city’s riots. Harlens was a student at Westchester High School in Los Angeles, California. Merging of Soon Ja Du and Latasha Harlins articles. The killing was captured on a grainy security video. Security footage from the March 16, 1991, shooting of Latasha Harlins by Soon Ja Du at Empire Liquor. Du, 49, sat at the defense table crying after the tape was shown for the first of numerous times during the day and for the first time in public. After all, a video of an immigrant Korean store owner shooting the teenager in the back of her head followed at the heels of the Rodney King incident. In 1991 a Superior Court Judge sentenced Soon Ja Du with 400 hours of community service and a $500 fine for fatally shooting a 15-year-old Black girl. The murder of Latasha Harlins stands as one of the most shameful acts committed in Korean American history. She will die in front of your eyes.”. Allison, who studied photojournalism before becoming a filmmaker, renders the young girls who stand in for Latasha and her playmates with the natural but studied eye of a street photographer. For people who do not yet qualify for a COVID-19 vaccine in their area, there are limited options for obtaining a coveted dose. “You will see Latasha being killed. Harlins, after telling Du she intended to pay for the juice, hit the grocer twice in the face as Du held onto her clothing, the witness said. Latasha Harlins, 15, went into a corner store to buy orange juice and never came out. The jury found Soon guilty of voluntary manslaughter. This is real life,” Deputy District Attorney Roxane Carvajal had warned the jury. Een vijftienjarig meisje werd gedood omdat de winkelier dacht dat ze sinaasappelsap wilde stelen, terwijl ze het gewoon wilde kopen. Du’s trial, originally scheduled to be heard in Compton, was moved to Los Angeles this month by a judge who concluded that jurors and witnesses might be “intimidated” in a city that has a large black population. Her name was Latasha Harlins … The death of Latasha Harlins, which was recorded on security footage, and the la… The best-known fact about Harlins, whose friends and family called her Tasha, is that she was killed over a $1.79 bottle of juice. Some black activists say the incidents stemmed from racism on the part of the Koreans. Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. The youngsters, who were at the store to buy hair gel for their mother, said Du had falsely accused Harlins of trying to steal a $1.79 bottle of orange juice, then after a scuffle threw a stool at Harlins and shot her as the teen-ager walked away. Any 1990s news viewer is familiar with the footage of Rodney King being kicked and beaten with batons by four members of the LAPD—it’s been seared into the American consciousness. In 1991, Harlins was shot and killed in a liquor store, the Korean store owner, Soon Ja Du, firing the fatal shots after accusing the teenager of stealing a $1.79 bottle of orange juice. In 1991, Soon Ja Du, a Korean store owner, received a light sentence in the shooting death of Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old African-American. The video showed Soon shooting Harlins in the back of the head as Harlins was attempting to leave the store. If you’ve seen anything of Latasha’s life, it’s likely the final seconds of her existence. A Love Song for Latasha: Netflix documentary reveals the real story behind LA shooting. “The girl was saying: ‘Let me go. Allison says that those who best loved the teenager have been “disappointed” in the way Latasha’s death has been covered, so she made sure to include them throughout the filmmaking process. In cross-examining Combs and her brother, Lloyd pointed out discrepancies among statements they gave to police the day of the shooting, to the grand jury that indicted Du, and to the jury Monday. names, ages, roles of Billy and Charles Du, Du's lawyer, video proof, Tupac. … Proceedings held in Compton were marked by confrontations between Du’s supporters and backers of Harlins’ family. A videotape played Monday in a Los Angeles courtroom showed that Latasha Harlins had turned away from a scuffle with a Korean grocer when the black teen-ager was shot in … But the inherent power imbalance between documentarian and subject made her decide to include the family in the process, in order to “decolonize” the documentary practice. “This is not television. Latasha Harlins (January 1, 1976 – March 16, 1991) was a 15-year-old African-American girl who was fatally shot by Soon Ja Du (Hangul:순자두), a 51-year-old Korean American convenience store-owner. Latasha Harlins was a student at Westchester High School in Los Angeles. Harlins then turned her back to Du and attempted to leave the store when Soon Ja Du pulled out a gun and shot her in the back of the head, killing Latasha Harlins instantly. The story also highlighted the fact that racism in America isn’t only a Black-white affair, and inflamed tensions between Black and Korean Americans in L.A. At the bail hearing, more than 150 members of the local Korean American community attended to support Du, and applauded when she was released on bail. The jury recommended the maximum sentence for Soon, but the judge Joyce Karlin over ruled the recommendation. A videotape played Monday in a Los Angeles courtroom showed that Latasha Harlins had turned away from a scuffle with a Korean grocer when the black teen-ager was shot in the back of the head. Although its focus is on humanizing its subject by concentrating on her life, the film does deal with Latasha’s death, as experienced by her friends and family, in deeply moving interviews. ie. Family Gathers on 25 Year Anniversary of Latasha Harlins' Death The girl was shot in the back of the head. According to The Los Angeles Times , her aunt Denise Harlins … In the years following Harlins’ killing, rapper Tupac Shakur provided her with a little hint of justice by ensuring that her name would never be completely forgotten. because of the force he was using.”. The Harlins shooting is one of several confrontations between Korean grocers in South-Central and their customers. In one of the best games in NCAA Final Four history, UCLA did not deserve to lose on one of the most unlikely final shots in tournament history. “Latasha’s best friend would always tell me, ‘Latasha’s going to make you work for this.’ And that’s something that I really believe,” she said. Latasha has been memorialized before, including in songs by artists like Tupac Shakur. Microsoft and partners may be compensated if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. “You bitch, you are trying to steal my orange juice,” the boy quoted Du as saying when Harlins approached the store’s counter with currency in her hand and the bottle of juice “halfway” protruding from her backpack. The film’s title is taken from a conversation with Latasha’s uncle, the ex-husband of her late aunt Denise Harlins, who became an activist in the wake of her niece’s murder. A vigil was held in Los Angeles this March for the 25th anniversary of Latasha Harlins' death. The short documentary, ‘A … Just thirteen days after Rodney was beaten, a fifteen-year-old Black girl named Latasha Harlins entered the Empire Liquor Market in South Central Los Angeles. He testified that Harlins did not use swear words, but his sister’s testimony contradicted that. Playground dedicated to Latasha Harlins, 30 years after killing March 17, 2021, 12:19 AM A somber anniversary was marked Tuesday for family, friends, and an entire community still heartbroken over the wrongful shooting of a young, Black girl. Let me go.’ ”. When Allison returned to her hometown twenty-five years after the riots, she decided to embark on a project dedicated to Latasha’s memory. Pictured: Latasha Harlins. “We were just talking to him about Latasha and about the other projects that have mentioned her, and he told us this has to be a love song for her,” said Allison. Police would also determine that she hadn’t tried to steal the drink. 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