While attending a party a young Vietnamese American Luyen Phan Nguyen was beaten into unconsciousness at a party in Coral Springs, Florida. These beatings directly resulted in Luyens" spine being broken and severe trauma to the brain. Luyen eventually lost his life as a direct result of the beatings. Was the attack a result of a party getting out of control, or was it a clash of cultures, or did racism have a major play in the events on that Saturday night? To this day, we still do not have the answer to those hypotheses.
Luyen was an immigrant from Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army took his father Dat Nguyen into custody. Dat eventually escaped and immigrated with his family to the United States. Dat was a doctor in Vietnam and eventually received approval to practice in the United States. Luyen was very young when his family arrived in the United States. Luyen quickly assimilated into his new country. He learned the language quickly and spoke with no accent. Luyen was a model student and received straight A's throughout school. He was very active in track and field and enjoyed throwing the shot putt. He was said to be quiet, shy and well liked by his classmates. He loved going to parties and always knew were they were, "Luyens" love of parties eventually led to his death" (Miami Herald 3). He really enjoyed just being around other people. Upon graduation from high school, Luyen enrolled in college. Luyen had always wanted to become a doctor and follow in his fathers footsteps. Luyen was the epitome of the model immigrant. Luyen was very patriotic to his new country and believed that he was living the American Dream. He stood on the grounds that everyone is created equal and he always respected others beliefs and viewpoints.
The seven young men that attacked Luyen and beat him to death had many commonalities. The young men were all born in the United States.