On the evening of January 18, 1995, Joung Nam Kim, a 56-year-old Korean male, was working in his Tacoma, Washington, grocery store, a place he had built into a neighborhood fixture. The Min Grocery, located in the 3100 block of Portland Avenue, was a familiar and welcoming spot for many in the community. That sense of peace was shattered when two young men entered the store with the intent to rob it.
The events that unfolded next were swift and brutal, leaving a lasting scar on the community and a family devastated.
The two assailants, later described as a Black male and a Native American male, both estimated to be in their late teens or early twenties, stormed into the small market. They began to ransack the store, creating a scene of chaos and terror. In the midst of the violent robbery, Joung Nam Kim was shot multiple times. The robbers then grabbed cash from the register and fled the scene, leaving Kim mortally wounded. He died there in his store, a place of business he had worked hard to maintain.
Outside, a third accomplice waited behind the wheel of a maroon sedan, thought to be a Nissan Maxima or Sentra. The two robbers jumped into the waiting vehicle, and it sped away into the night, disappearing down an alley. Despite the presence of witnesses in the store's storeroom and others who saw the men flee, the investigation was met with challenges. A reluctance for people to come forward with information hampered the early stages of the police inquiry. To this day, the case remains unsolved, and no arrests have ever been made in the murder of Joung Nam Kim. The violent end to a life built on hard work and community service remains a painful, open wound for his family and the city of Tacoma.
