The night before he killed her and shot himself, Toua Vang burst into a birthday party in a rage over his ex-girlfriend possibly looking for a new man and, with five kids watching, grabbed her collar and threatened to kill her with an 18-inch kitchen knife, according to court records.
Chao Moua, 43, fell to the floor during the struggle, dropping her necklace and cell phone, which Vang stole when he fled the home, saying he planned to return with a gun and shoot everyone, a police affidavit filed in court says.
Vang, 50, didn't return that night, but Wednesday afternoon he caught up with Moua at her physical therapy appointment at an East Anchorage strip mall and shot her dead, police say. The distraught man then shot himself, although he survived and remained hospitalized in critical condition on Thursday, according to police.
Problems between Vang and Moua had been building for some time, according to their families. Several months ago the pair split up because Vang was seeing another woman, said Vang's son, Dee Vang.
What caused Vang to finally snap, however, remains a mystery to those who know him. The last family member to see Vang before the shooting that day may have been one of his sons, Dee Vang said.
"First my dad went to pick up my little brother," said Dee Vang, 19. "He was crying and then he told my little brother he was leaving. My little brother didn't get what he was trying to say."
The father of seven children, Vang worked most recently as a janitor at a medical plaza on Lake Otis Parkway, Dee Vang said. Vang's children were born in Wisconsin, although they moved to St. Paul, Minn., after his first divorce, he said. There, he met Moua, a stay-at-home mom who also has seven children, and they moved to Alaska in 2001.
Family members on both sides said Vang, who had never been charged with a crime in Alaska until this week, didn't have a big reputation for violence. Once, while drunk, he kicked a wall and a door, said Moua's son, Neng Yang, 21. That was the only other outburst he remembered, he said.
But then, Tuesday at about 8:40 p.m., Vang stormed the child's birthday party, threatening Moua and then two relatives who tried to intervene, saying he planned to get his gun and return to kill them, according to charges filed against him later that night. The family called police, who arrived to find Vang gone.
Police looked for him without success.
"They could have arrested him on (probable cause)," police Lt. Dave Parker said. "But if you can't find him to arrest him, then you get a warrant. Actually, the same officers were involved the following day looking for him when the tragedy took place."
The warrant charged Vang with three counts of felony assault and two of theft for stealing Moua's cell phone and necklace. Officers stopped by his home on Wednesday, Parker said, just minutes before the shooting took place.
Vang was gone but had been there earlier, his son said. At about 2 a.m. Wednesday, Vang showed up at home, acting normal but with a purpose.
"He came here to grab his stuff," Dee Vang said in an interview in Vang's Mountain View apartment Thursday afternoon. "The first thing he asked about was his hunting gear, so we didn't know what he was up to. He told me to find a way for him to get out of Alaska because he said that my stepmom was giving him too much trouble, so he wanted to move as soon as possible."
At the time, nobody realized he had taken his 9 mm pistol, Dee Vang said. Only later, when police told the family what happened, did they realize he had, he said.
Police won't say how they think Vang spent the day Wednesday, but Moua's family says Vang appears to have spent at least part of the day following Moua, watching her movements from afar.
"We asked the kids, 'Did you happen to see him?' " said Moua's niece, Ana Hang. "They said, 'Yeah, we seen him parked behind two cars over by their apartment.' My aunt didn't think that he was going to do that to her.
"She was probably just assuming that he was just threatening her."
Because they had only split up a few months ago, Vang probably knew Moua would be showing up for her weekly physical therapy session at the Better Health Pain and Wellness Center in the strip mall at the corner of Penland Parkway and Northway Drive, said Yang, Moua's son.
Moua had been in a car crash last summer that injured her neck, shoulder and hip, he said.
"She said that it's hard for her to sleep because her body was aching," Yang said. "My mom has an appointment there every week, once a week, about the same time, 4 o'clock. It was a weekly routine."
At 4:28 p.m. Wednesday, Moua had just walked out the door from her weekly massage, Yang said, and stepped into her vehicle when Vang sped in behind her and blocked her SUV in its spot on the far side of the strip mall.
With Moua's vehicle pinned in place, Vang stepped out and walked around his SUV and to the driver's side of his estranged girlfriend's vehicle, according to police. Witnesses said he pulled his pistol and shot Moua, leaving her slumped in the driver's seat and dead by the time paramedics arrived.
Vang then put the pistol to his own head and pulled the trigger. Police found him "critically injured" but alive, the weapon on the ground nearby. Dee Vang said his father has since been through surgery and is stabilized, although no one is sure if he will survive.
Police have not yet charged Vang with a crime. Doing so before he is discharged from the hospital would mean the city has to foot the medical bills, Parker said.
The families are still trying to wrap their heads around what happened and why. Burial arrangements were still being worked out for Moua, whose seven children, for the second time, lost a parent.
"They lost their dad a long time ago," said the children's aunt, Mai Xiong, 39. "Now they're orphans and they've got no money. What they gonna do? They're just only kids."
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com