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<\/p>\n\n Justin Tran was heading to the gym when a black Lexus pulled up near his family\u2019s house in San Jose, California. A man stepped out, fired multiple shots into Tran\u2019s car, and jumped into the sedan as it sped off.\n <\/p>\n
\n It was about 9:20 p.m. on June 27, 2016. Officers found Tran, 26, slumped over his steering wheel and pronounced him dead at the scene.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe lived in a cul-de-sac and he\u2019d just turned into the street. \u2026 they followed him,\u201d his sister, Jade Phan, told CNN. \u201cThey waved him down. He probably thought they needed help, and that\u2019s when it happened.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n For more than two years, there were no arrests and no answers. Then in 2018, about 350 miles away in a CVS parking lot in Westminster, California, another man was shot six times in front of his girlfriend.\n <\/p>\n
\n Investigators said they eventually uncovered evidence showing that one man was behind both killings: a South Korean named Myung Jin Kim.\n <\/p>\n
\n As they dug deeper, they learned Kim had allegedly orchestrated the shooting in the San Jose cul-de-sac, but the hitman killed the wrong man. The intended target was Tran\u2019s stepfather, police said.\n <\/p>\n
\n By the time investigators connected the dots, Kim had vanished. Authorities obtained warrants charging him in both killings, but he remained on the run for years.\n <\/p>\n
\n Then, in December, investigators learned Kim was in Laos after he visited the US embassy there seeking travel documents. Working with US federal officials and authorities in the Southeast Asian country, investigators in Orange and Santa Clara counties secured his arrest. His extradition in June marked the first time a fugitive had ever been returned to the United States from Laos.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Kim, 32, is being held at the Santa Clara County Main Jail on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder as he awaits prosecution. At the time of the second killing, he was out on bail on drug and weapons charges.\n <\/p>\n
\n His attorney, Aimee Buentello, declined to comment, saying she\u2019s still reviewing the prosecution\u2019s evidence. Kim has not yet entered a plea but is scheduled to appear in court next month in San Jose, the next step in unraveling what led to the death of a young man police say was the victim of a botched murder-for-hire plot.\n <\/p>\n
\n A decade has passed since that killing on a quiet San Jose street. But for Tran\u2019s family, the arrest revisited a painful, complicated chapter of their lives.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s just so hard to talk about,\u201d Phan said. \u201cMe and my mom have come to a silent mutual agreement that we\u2019re going to remember him before everything happened. We don\u2019t like to talk about the things that happened after.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n At the time of his death, Tran worked at a Jiffy Lube, his sister said. He was into cars, and it seemed like a good steppingstone as he figured out what to do next.\n <\/p>\n
\n As the only son and oldest of four siblings, he was a steady presence in his sisters\u2019 lives. He often shot hoops outside the family home, laughing and yelling with his friends late into the night, Phan said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe would drive me home from school with EDM-type music on really loud, so the car was kind of shaking and I would get so scared,\u201d said Phan, who was 15 when he died. \u201cHe was so full of life.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n A decade later, Phan, now 25, is almost the same age as her brother when he died. She still remembers exactly where she was when she got the news. The sisters, along with their mother, were vacationing in Florida while Tran stayed home in San Jose. The siblings shared the same mother, but Tran had a different father, Phan said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe were in the hotel room and my mom frantically woke us all up and (said) your brother\u2019s in trouble \u2026 and I was very confused. She was kind of freaking us out. I was in shock, I didn\u2019t understand what was happening,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n
\n When they got home from the airport, police cars lined their cul-de-sac. The days and weeks that followed brought many questions but no clear answers. The family grieved quietly, rarely speaking to one another about what happened, Phan said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe last few years have been pretty rough,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter it happened, we kind of tried to hold it all together for the sake of the family. But recently it\u2019s been really tough.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Tran had lived in the San Jose house with his mother, sisters and stepfather, according to police.\n <\/p>\n
\n Surveillance footage from the family\u2019s home showed a black Lexus driving around the neighborhood in the days before the killing. On the day Tran was ambushed, the vehicle circled the area 16 times before the shooting, according to investigators.\n <\/p>\n
\n The morning after the shooting, Tran\u2019s stepfather told investigators he believed the attack was gang related, according to a statement of facts from San Jose police. He suggested to police the attack was related to a Vietnamese caf\u00e9 he had owned in San Jose that contained illegal gambling machines. He said the machines were owned by a Vietnamese man he believed was in a gang, and who paid him monthly rent to keep them there.\n <\/p>\n
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\n The stepfather told police he feared \u201cthere would have been an issue\u201d if he\u2019d spoken up about not wanting the machines there. He declined to elaborate to investigators, saying he wanted to protect his family.\n <\/p>\n
\n The stepfather\u2019s name was redacted from the police documents, and CNN was unable to contact him for additional information.\n <\/p>\n
\n Investigators have said Tran did not know the suspects, and that they believe the stepdad was the intended target. The San Jose Police Department and Santa Clara District Attorney\u2019s Office declined to provide additional details, including a possible motive, citing an ongoing investigation.\n <\/p>\n
\n Tran\u2019s killing followed two other fatal shootings<\/a> of Vietnamese-American men with ties to local restaurants<\/a>, according to San Jose Police and CNN affiliate KGO-TV. Over the previous 18 months, two men had been gunned down point-blank at Vietnamese cafes.\n <\/p>\n