Loved ones remember devoted father, 2 sisters

Left: Melina Harm
Middle: Jennifer Harm
Bottom: Choeun Harm


The Seattle Times

Here is a closer look at the three victims in the fatal shooting rampage in West Seattle last Thursday.

By Lynn Thompson

Seattle Times staff reporter

How to donate to the family Phan/Harm Memorial Fund BECU Account #3586082948 P.O. Box 34044 Seattle, WA 98124-1044 BECU members can call 800-233-2328.

Family was everything to Choeun Harm.

He had escaped the Khmer Rouge in his native Cambodia as a teenager, survived five years in a refugee camp on the border with Thailand, and then tried to re-establish his life in America, first in Pennsylvania, then in Stockton, Calif., before settling in Seattle in 1990.

He told his extended family that even if they had only a penny among them, if the family was together, it was OK.

That hope was shattered Thursday afternoon when Harm, 43, and two daughters, Jennifer, 17, and Melina, 14, were shot to death in their West Seattle home by Harm's mother-in-law, Saroeun Phan, 60, who then shot and killed herself.

Police and family members said Phan, also a Cambodian refugee, had a history of mental illness.

Saturday, surviving family members and friends remembered the three shooting victims as part of a lively, close-knit family who were more often together than apart.

"He was a good person"

Choeun Harm was an enthusiastic fisherman who often could be found under the West Seattle Bridge during salmon season. He also fished freshwater lakes.

"If you had been there and watched him, you would know how good he was," said Sarun Chhom, Harm's friend for 15 years. "He would catch two, three fish before anyone else caught one."

For weekend camping and fishing trips, the five kids would sit on top of each other in the family's Ford Explorer, crammed in with all their food and gear, said another longtime friend, Sean Phuong.

"The kids would all run around and have fun. He was a good person," Chhom said.

Harm ran a landscaping business with his father-in-law, Chhoey Sok, 62. Harm's only son, Kevin, 16, was frequently at his side, friends said. The business struggled because of the economic slowdown, and in recent months, they often worked only a few hours a day, Phuong said.

That's why they had come home around 1 p.m. Thursday and were getting ready to go fishing when Saroeun Phan came into the living room and began shooting. Harm was killed first.

His daughter, Jennifer Harm, was shot as she ran downstairs to comfort her father.

A friendly, helpful daughter

Saturday, friends remembered Jennifer as lively, funny and social. She would call friends just to chat when she was bored, said Lisa Sun, a cousin who lived with the family and survived the shooting.

Jennifer was also a homebody, helping her mother with cleaning, cooking and caring for her sisters.

Jennifer had attended Rainier Beach High School but dropped out.

She met her boyfriend, Allen Green, two and a half years ago. Jennifer's MySpace page features a photo of her in a silk Cambodian dress, swept up in Green's arms. He wrote about his love for her on the page, saying, "Don't underestimate her because she is littlest ... the end of the day she's always right there on my side ... I love you baby."

Quiet girl adored older sister

Jennifer's younger sister, Melina Harm, known to the family as Lina, adored her older sister and looked up to her, friends said. Lina was quiet. Jennifer was outgoing. Lina was more serious, whereas Jennifer liked to joke and tease.

Lina liked to dance and sing at family parties, her cousin Sun said, and she liked having the older girls paint her nails. She also liked to play basketball.

Another Harm daughter, Angel, 12, said her favorite memory of her sister Lina is of going to Dairy Queen for ice cream together when an older sister who lived in Missouri came to visit.

"She was quiet and nice. She always helped me with my homework," Angel said.

Lina always wanted to be with Jennifer. "Everywhere they go, they always go together," Sun said.

And so it was that when the young people in the home fled to a small basement room to escape from Grandma Phan on Thursday afternoon, Lina would not leave the wounded Jennifer.

Kevin broke a window and quickly scrambled out with Sun and Green. Kevin reached back for Lina and urged her to come.

Their grandmother came around the corner, shot at Kevin and missed. She shot Lina where she stood in the window.

"She wouldn't leave her older sister. Her older sister is her best friend," Kevin said.