The 77-year-old man accused of killing a Long Beach fire captain appeared for his first court hearing on Monday, but his attorney quickly asked to postpone the proceedings because she hasn’t been able to communicate with him.
Thomas Kim, head bowed and wearing a hospital gown, was rolled into the Long Beach courtroom in a wheelchair around 11 a.m. where he was scheduled to enter a plea to half a dozen felony charges including the murder of LBFD Capt. David Rosa.
Instead, the hearing lasted only a few minutes and was quickly rescheduled for Aug. 15.
“I’m not able to communicate with my client today,” Carol DiSabatino, Kim’s public defender, said as about half a dozen Long Beach firefighters watched from the back of the courtroom.
DiSabatino said there didn’t seem to be a language barrier between her and Kim, who is originally from South Korea, according to his brother. There appeared to be some kind of medical issue that kept Kim from talking with her, she said.
Kim didn’t say anything during the hearing. He spent most of it looking down while slightly hunched forward in his wheelchair. His first court date had been repeatedly delayed for unspecified medical issues since his arrest on June 25.
Authorities allege Kim set off an explosion in his apartment early that morning and then shot at the firefighters who responded, killing Rosa, grazing firefighter Ernesto Torres and wounding another resident at the high-rise retirement home where Kim lived.
Kim is charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count each of murder, attempted murder of a firefighter, arson of an inhabited structure and explosion with intent to murder.
Prosecutors said they suspect Kim was trying to kill his upstairs neighbor, whom he’d been feuding with, when he set off the explosion in his second-floor apartment shortly before 4 a.m.
A note in Kim’s pocket indicated he was attempting a murder-suicide, police said.
After the blast, Kim waited with a gun across the hallway from his apartment and opened fire after the blaze was doused, authorities allege.
After police took Kim into custody, he told officers he’d opened fire because “he got scared,” according to court documents.
Kim’s brother, George Kim, previously told the Long Beach Post that Kim is a retired civil engineer who ended up divorced from his wife over gambling problems. He said he’d lost contact with Kim decades ago when Kim went on a business trip to Mexico. George Kim said he had no idea his brother was living in Long Beach at the Covenant Manor, which is a home for low-income seniors.
Prosecutors haven’t decided whether they’ll pursue the death penalty against Kim.