Iraq War Veteran Charged in Shooting That Left One Dead, Another Critically Injured

By City News Service

Criminal charges were filed Tuesday against an Iraq War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, who is accused of fatally shooting a 73-year-old neighbor and critically wounding the man's wife in the Reseda apartment complex where all three lived.

Ricardo Javier Tapia, 32, is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 9 on one count each of murder and attempted murder.

Giam Kim Hoang -- who lived in the same apartment building as Tapia -- was killed in the shooting last Friday. Hoang's wife, Hoan Thi Nguyen, 61, was hospitalized.

Tapia was acting irrationally and bleeding from wounds to his arms and hands when officers responding to a shooting-in-progress call located him inside the complex in the 7500 block of Canby Avenue about 6:40 p.m. Friday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Tapia was jailed in lieu of $4 million bail.