Homicide Report > Herbert Wong, 30
Herbert Wong, 30
Died June 2, 2010 at 12:30 a.m.
Herbert Wong, a 30-year-old Asian man, died Wednesday, June 2, several hours after he was stabbed in the 7500 block of Hayvenhurst Avenue in Van Nuys, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records.
The attack was reported about 10:20 p.m. Tuesday at Ultima DVD Inc., a video distribution business where Stephen Hill, the alleged assailant, did production work and apparently lived, police said.
Homicide Det. Joel Price said Hill attacked one man in a back room of the business with a machete-style weapon. Two colleagues heard loud screams and rushed to his aid.
Hill [pictured right] turned on the colleagues and swung the weapon repeatedly, cutting both men, police said. All three victims were rushed to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where Wong was pronounced dead at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to coroner's records.
A second man was treated and released, while the third victim remains in the hospital, LAPD Officer Bruce Borihahn said.
Wong, a native of China and a Canoga Park resident, acted in adult films under the name Tom Dong and appeared with the accused killer in several films.
Investigators are trying to determine if Hill may have been angry with his colleagues after being informed that he was being fired from his job and evicted from his living quarters.
Four days after the stabbing, Hill got into a standoff with authorities and spent about eight hours on the edge of a rocky cliff in West Hills surrounded by police and talking to crisis negotiators.
With dusk approaching and Hill continuing to threaten to kill himself, members of the Los Angeles Police Department's elite SWAT unit tried to subdue and apprehend him, using some sort of less-than-lethal weapon, said Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, who oversaw the incident.
Seated on the cliff’s edge, Hill threw himself over at 5:30 p.m. and suffered fatal head injuries from the roughly 50-foot fall, authorities said.
Albanese declined to discuss the specifics of the weapon used and the plan that had been devised to capture Hill.
“He was bent on taking his own life,” Albanese said. “It’s very unfortunate. We wanted this to end a different way.”
— Andrew Blankstein, Joel Rubin and Ruben Vives
Photo: Herbert Wong's alleged stabber, Stephen Hill, Credit: DMV
Two reader comments about Herbert Wong
where is the name identifying the photo? are we supposed to guess?
June 9, 2010 at 12:51 p.m.
A murder that could only happen in LA. Or maybe only in the Valley.
I believe that Herbert Wong AKA Tom Dong lived at the Ultima DVD warehouse too. If they were going to boot Steve Hill out, he must have gone insane at losing his porn accommodations.
Ultima DVD was certainly a niche porn outfit. Their website brags about all of the myriad of fetishes they cater to. Pain and humilation is their speciality. A samurai sword prop would fit right into their own particular genre.
Why anyone would want to live in such a place is unknown. Even if money was an issue, there's got to be somewhere more mentally healthy to live at then a warehouse full of porn sets.
One of the blog entries on the Ultima site talks about their loss: "Tom Dong (Herbert Wong) was a cinematographer and actor, blogger, editor and webmaster of Armpit Girls, and he was also our best friend. We are very saddened by his sudden and unfortunate passing, but we are also celebrating all of his rich contributions to our lives and business."
RIP Herbert.
July 31, 2010 at 9:46 p.m.
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