One of the last men to see lawyer Ho Ledinh alive says there may be a Vietnamese communist link to his close friend’s murder – as he recalled the desperate final moments of the criminal defence lawyer’s life.
Huu Chi Nguyen begged his friend to ‘say something, please!’ after he collapsed on the ground having been shot at least three times by a gunman at close range at the Happy Cup cafe in Bankstown on Tuesday afternoon.
Local Vietnamese news outlet editor Mr Nguyen was meeting with Mr Ledinh and a prominent community official in a bid to ask the man’s organisation to withdraw its support from a statement Huu believed was pro-communist.
Huu Chi Nguyen (pictured) begged his friend to ‘say something, please!’ after he collapsed on the ground having been shot at least three times by a gunman in Bankstown on Tuesday
Huu Chi Nguyen’s partner threw herself to the ground, putting her hand in the trail of blood left behind after Ho Ledinh was executed in Bankstown on Tuesday
Sitting down with Daily Mail Australia, Mr Nguyen said he did not get a good look at the gunman but revealed how his friend stood up after the shooting and staggered a couple of steps before falling to the ground.
‘I saw the man running away and I looked back at Mr Ho,’ the shell-shocked man recalled.
‘Mr Ho stand(s) up, walked about one or two step and lost his balance and he fell on the floor.
‘I didn’t see the bleeding at all, but when he fell … I hold one hand under his back and one hand (into) his side.
‘I hold him, I cry and hold him and I see he’s dying’.
A woman soon asked Mr Nguyen to lie him down on the ground. She then started performing emergency compressions on his chest while Mr Nguyen performed CPR.
‘She did it on his chest while I tried to blow air into his mouth,’ he said.
Vietnamese-born lawyer Ho Ledinh (pictured with wife Ngo Thu Huong and two of their three children outside the cafe) was gunned down in broad daylight at a Bankstown cafe, in Sydney’s south west
Huu Chi Nguyen’s partner fell to the ground in despair after the execution of Ho Ledinh on Tuesday
Huu Chi Nguyen’s partner cries uncontrollably at the scene of the crime
Police soon asked Mr Nguyen to move away from the crime scene (pictured) before he told them he was a witness and close friend of Mr Ledinh’s
But Mr Ledinh’s eyes weren’t moving and his mouth was open as he tried to breathe. After some time, he stopped reacting as his Mr Nguyen begged him to come to.
‘I ask him, ‘say something, please, say something!’
‘Chi- my name – Chi is here.
‘Ho, say something please! Say something! And I cried.’
Police soon asked Mr Nguyen to move away from the crime scene before he told them he was a witness and close friend of Mr Ledinh’s.
Some time afterwards, he picked up his friend’s glasses off the floor ‘as a souvenir to (remember) him’ but later gave them to the police.
Police soon asked Mr Nguyen to move away from the crime scene before he told them he was a witness and close friend of Mr Ledinh’s
Huu Chi Nguyen’s partner fell to the ground in despair after the execution of Ho Ledinh on Tuesday
A witness told Daily Mail Australia she watched as the gunman left his victim lying bleeding on the floor of the popular cafe
Mr Nguyen runs the anti-communist Saigontimes.org news website and Mr Ledinh was his legal advisor and friend of at least two decades.
He said he spoke with police until the early hours of Wednesday morning and visited the crime scene with his partner, Vivian Vo, who described Mr Ledinh as ‘like a brother’.
Asked what he thought the motive could be, Mr Nguyen said he had some theories ‘but (it was) very hard to say’.
His first theory was that Mr Ledinh, a ‘very good criminal lawyer’, may have had criminal enemies.
‘But that is not the big one. I believe the big one is politics. That is the second theory.
‘My newspaper (is) running by two men… myself and Ho. He is my legal advisor for twenty years or more.
‘My newspaper (is) anti-communist … Always. ‘
‘There is a communist spy network in Australia – they hate us and they hate him. They hate me and they hate him.’
A squad of detectives bag up drink bottles in the hope that one of them will lead them to Mr Ledinh’s killer
The killer (pictured) was caught on nearby CCTV cameras wearing a hi-vis green jacket, just minutes before he approached Ledinh from behind and shot him with a handgun
In CCTV footage handed to investigators, the mystery gunman could be seen taking a swig out of a water bottle prior to the brazen shooting
He said they had been devoted to fighting communists ‘inside’ Australia.
After sitting down and sharing their story at a local cafe, the couple walked up the street to the crime scene. Ms Vo cried, dropped to her knees out the front of the police tape and touched her late friend’s blood.
NSW Police has established Strike Force Eugene to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Officers were earlier seen collecting water bottles from nearby bins as evidence.
The gunman was seen on CCTV taking a swig of a substance prior to the killing.
Mr Ledinh’s blood still washed over the pavement outside the cafe he used to co-own as police locked down the shop