Workplace shooting puzzles kin, officials
Assailant found dead, police say
RANDOLPH - A Vietnamese immigrant shot and wounded a co-worker at an industrial park yesterday morning before driving away and ending his own life, apparently with the same handgun, police said.
The shooting in the York Industrial Park occurred at about 7 a.m. and involved two employees of the Alloy Fabricators of New England, one of several small companies located in a one-story building on York Avenue, officials said.
The alleged shooter was identified by authorities as Howard Trang, 49, of Dorchester, who a relative said was one of the "Boat People" who risked their lives to escape Communist rule in Vietnam in the late 1970s.
"You wake up and find out something like this has happened," said Trang's nephew, Phuong Nguyen. "We have no idea what happened."
Police identified the victim as Jean Dure, 52, who relatives said immigrated from Haiti 30 years ago. He is a widower and the father of three adult sons.
One of those sons, Vladimir Dure, said in a brief telephone interview that his family is also baffled by the attack.
"No idea," Vladimir Dure said when asked why his father was shot. Dure was rushed to Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, where he underwent surgery.
Officials said he is expected to survive.
Police Chief Paul Porter told reporters that officers found Dure bleeding from gunshot wounds to the shoulder and abdomen and learned that Trang had driven off in a red
"He just took out a gun and shot him," Porter said describing Trang's attack on Dure. "We still don't know why."
Workers could not be reached for comment. The company owner, Christian G. Dietz III of Scituate, did not return telephone calls at his home or office yesterday.
In Randolph, where Dure lived until recently on Warren Street, his brother-in-law, Joseph Cantave, said Dure has worked at the Randolph company for the last six or seven years as a welder.
Cantave said he never heard Dure complain about his co-workers, never mentioned Trang, and was the kind of person who avoided conflict.
"I was surprised when I heard it happened," Cantave said, explaining that Dure lost his wife to breast cancer about four years ago.
"He is a very quiet man."
On Boston Street in Dorchester yesterday, Trang's nephew said Trang was among the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who risked their lives to escape the Communist-controlled country after the end of the Vietnam War.
Trang jumped onto a ship and eventually made his way to an Indonesian island and then to Boston in 1979 or 1980, Nguyen said.
Since then, he has worked a variety of jobs and also married his wife, Cao Quach, about 10 years ago. The couple is childless, and yesterday Quach could be heard crying in distress as she tried to understand what happened to her husband.
"Taking that big risk," Nguyen said, only to die by his own hand. "It wasn't worth it."
Porter said Trang's car was found about 1.5 miles from the shooting scene with the engine running on Walsh Avenue. A silver. semiautomatic, .45-caliber handgun was found next to him, officials said.
Porter and a spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney both said that Trang appeared to have killed himself, but they also said that the cause of death would be established by the state medical examiner's office.
The chief said he wasn't sure how many employees were at work or how many saw the violence. But, he said, all of them are suffering.
