Arrested UCLA student released

A Huntington Beach man has been released from custody after being arrested in connection with a fight and stabbing that left three people wounded at a UCLA fraternity party last month.

Chris Yi, 19, was arrested Oct. 1 along with Isaiah Hee Cho, 19, of Westminster and Justin Kim, 19, of La Crescenta. All three are enrolled at UCLA. Yi and Cho were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, while Kim was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory. The men were remanded into the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, according to UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton.

Kim was released from custody Saturday and Yi on Monday, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records.

Four other men, including Federico Fernandez, 22, and Phi Quoc Le, 20, of Huntington Beach, were arrested Sept. 22 in connection to the fight.

All four were arraigned on charges of attempted murder and aggravated mayhem and are being held in the Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles on $2 million bail each, Hampton said.

“This is a case of outstanding detective work leading to the arrest of suspects engaged in activities detrimental to the campus community,” UCLA Police Chief James D. Herren said in a statement. “We are fortunate that such violent crimes are relatively rare in the neighborhood adjacent to campus.”

The fight occurred Sept. 22 during an early-morning party hosted by Lambda Phi Epsilon in an apartment complex near campus, Hampton said. Officers responded to a call about assault with a deadly weapon and found one student stabbed in the abdomen, another stabbed in the arm and a third struck over the head with a bottle, Hampton said.

Fernandez and Le, along with Dan Su Pham, 19, of Covina and Don Thammavongsa, 19, of Westminster, were arrested later that day. Police learned of the other three men’s involvement through subsequent investigations, Hampton said.

Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students Robert Naples said in a statement that Lambda Phi Epsilon was already on suspension for a previous incident of fighting before the Sept. 22 incident and is now under further investigation.

“UCLA takes a very strong stand against those groups that violate policies intended to keep the campus community safe and those individuals charged with serious crimes that reflect poorly on the institution,” Naples said.

Nancy Greenstein, a spokeswoman for the UCLA Police Department, said she could remember Lambda Phi Epsilon’s name “popping up” a few times in incidents over the years.

She noted, though, that it was hard to measure the number of cases, because the fraternity did not have its own address on campus.

“They don’t have a house, so they live in different places,” Greenstein said. “So it’s harder to say with complete accuracy what’s attributable to their efforts.”