Phu Lam – Unit Culminating Assignment Instructions
Your task is to write a two-page report outlining:
(1) How would each “ologist” interpret and explain this case?
(2) Which “ologist” do you think has the best reasoning for his behaviour?
Your report is to be organized into paragraphs, and it may be written in first person.
Your report should include:
Introduction / Description of the event, thesisBody 1 / Anthropological View
Body 2 / Psychological View
Body 3 / Sociological View
Conclusion / Opinion on which ologist has the best explanation, restate thesis, wrap up essay.
Evaluation
(1) Thinking/Application/Knowledge25 Marks
(position is clearly stated, position is supported with evidence
and materials from the worksheet, opposing arguments)
(2) Communication10 Marks
(Grammar, sentence structure, spelling, etc.)
Total:_____ /35 Marks
Due Date:______
Phu Lam: Case Study:
Eight people were killed in Edmonton on Dec. 30. Police said they found the suspect dead of apparent suicide early the next morning at a Vietnamese restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan.
The Incident:
Police spokesman Scott Pattison confirmed that the seven people found dead at a home in north Edmonton were shot and killed first. The shooter then went to a home in the Haddow neighbourhood of south Edmonton where he killed CyndiDuong, 37.
Duong's body was discovered when police responded to a weapons complaint at 6:53 p.m. MT Monday. They went to the north Edmonton house at 8:28 p.m. to check on the welfare of a potentially suicidal man but found nothing unusual.
"According to family, the male seemed depressed and overly emotional," police Chief Rod Knechtsaid Tuesday."The family was concerned that the male may be suicidal."
The bodies of three women, two men and boy and a girl were found at 12:23 a.m. after police received a call that convinced them to return to the home.
Lam’s body was found Tuesday morning at a restaurant in nearby Fort Saskatchewan. It appeared that he had committed suicide.
The Timeline:
Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014:
2 a.m. — Tien Truong finishes a shift at her workplace.
3:45 a.m. — Ha Truong, Tien Truong’s sister who also lives at the 180th Avenue home, communicates via text message with another person.
8 a.m. — Tien Truong and her mother, Dau Le, fail to show up for an overtime shift at their workplace.
Sometime from 3:45 a.m. to 8 a.m. — Police believe Lam shot and killed the seven victims in the 180th Avenue home.
8:30 p.m. — Ha Truong’s estranged husband visits the 180th Avenue home, knocks on the door and receives no answer. He sees a black SUV — which police would later connect to the shooter — parked outside.
Monday, Dec. 29, 2014:
9:45 a.m. — A witness spots the black SUV outside the 180th Avenue home but notices it is gone a few minutes later.
10 a.m. — Phu Lam drops off two young children at the home of an adult relative on the north side — a one-year-old girl believed to be the daughter of Lam and Tien Truong, and the eight-month-old son of Ha Truong.
Late afternoon — Phu Lam goes to the south side home of relatives.
6 p.m. — Phu Lam leaves the home of his relatives. Police say it is a 12-minute drive from there to Cyndi Duong’s residence.
6:50 p.m. — Phu Lam shoots and kills Cyndi Duong in her Haswell Court home, marking the beginning of police involvement in the spree. Police say she wasn’t Lam’s intended target but that there are connections between the two families.
8:28 p.m. — The relative Phu Lam dropped the two children off with calls police to express concern about Lam being suicidal and depressed. Police visit the 180th Avenue home a short time later, peering into windows, but leave after finding neither Lam nor anything suspicious.
11 p.m. — Investigators first connect Cyndi Duong’s killing with Phu Lam.
Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014
12:30 a.m. — Police return to the 180th Avenue home after receiving a second call from concerned relatives. Inside, police discover the bodies of the seven victims.
2 a.m. — Officers with the police tactical and surveillance units, along with help from Air-1, track Phu Lam to VN Express, a restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan he is connected to. The black SUV is discovered outside.
8:30 a.m. — Police believe Phu Lam shoots and kills himself inside the restaurant.
3:30 p.m. — Edmonton police chief Rod Knecht holds a news conference on the mass killing, confirming nine people, including the lone shooter, died.
The Killer:
Phu Lamis listed as the co-owner of the north Edmonton home where seven of the dead were found. Chau Tran, the owner of the VN Express, the restaurant where Lam was found dead, told CBC News on Wednesday that she was his former common-law spouse. The 53-year-old man who shot and killed his 35-year-old wife Tien Truong and seven other people before turning a gun on himself, might have been identified as an extremely high risk to kill, had he lived in Ontario.
That province’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee was created in 2003 to review cases of family violence resulting in death. It makes recommendations to help prevent future slayings and has compiled a list of 39 risk factors common to people who kill family members.
CBC News said his wife, Truong, asked an Alberta court for an emergency protection order in November 2012 when Lam threatened to kill her and her family upon learning that Elvis Lam was not his son.
The order was granted but was not renewed when it expired in January 2013. Elvis, 8, was among the victims.
The other child killed, 3-year-old Valentina Nguyen, was the daughter of 33-year-old Thanh Ha Thi Truong, who was the sister of Thuy Tien Truong.
The news service also said Lam was having financial difficulties, filing for bankruptcy last February after running up a debt of nearly $424,000.
Police said Lam had a criminal record dating back to 1987, and used a stolen 9-mm handgun in what the police chief called "an extreme case of domestic violence."
Worksheet Organizer:
Additional information that the 3 Disciplines Might Use in the Phu Lam Case.
The following information could be used by social scientists as they tried to explain Phu Lam’s actions. There are 20 statements in all. Categorize these statements, indicating whether each one reflects Anthropology (A), Psychology (P) or Sociology (S), by writing the corresponding letter beside the statement. Each discipline has 6 or 7 statements that are best suited to it; refer to the basic questions and areas of study that were discussed for each of the social sciences.
_____When faced with difficult situations, Lam showed a tendency to violent behaviour.
_____Men who commit crimes such as Lam’s usually comes from violent, broken families.
_____Societies has traditionally tolerated violence against women.
_____One woman in five has been or will be sexually abused.
_____Murderers who go on killing sprees like Lam’s may appear calm on the outside, but often are tormented by the lack of control they have in their lives.
_____Movies tend to glamorize violence against women.
_____Most males who treat women in the manner that Lam did have been sexually or physically abused as children.
_____Men who victimize women in this way tend to have difficult dealing with their emotions.
_____One woman in four has been or will be physically abused.
_____Mass killers have many common characteristics.
_____Courts traditionally have given lighter sentences to men who assaulted their wives or girlfriends than those who assaulted strangers.
_____Advertisements regularly use women as sex objects in order to sell beer, cars and any other goods.
_____ Lam, 53, had a criminal history dating back to the 1980s.
_____Lam was depressed and on medication.
_____Lam was part of the wave of refugees who’d escaped to Edmonton at the Vietnam War. Refugees have a high rate of having PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)/