The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is offering $20,000 for any information that could lead to the arrest of those who assaulted and killed an active-duty Marine earlier this year.
On Wednesday, July 24, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department announced it was seeking public assistance in locating the people who attacked 42-year-old Marine Peter Chounthala while he was in Los Angeles County. On May 28, at around 2 a.m., Chounthala was struck by a car in a hit-and-run incident in Bellflower, in southeastern Los Angeles County. LASD and the Los Angeles Fire Department responded, finding him in the street suffering from serious injuries to the chest. LAFD provided treatment, but Chounthala was declared dead at the scene.
LASD members investigating found that before the hit-and-run he had been assaulted by at least two men before he was hit by the car. They attacked and severely beat him, before leaving toward a nearby parking lot.
“Investigators believe that Mr. Chounthala was an innocent victim of these senseless acts of violence,” Lt. Patricia Thomas with the LASD’s Homicide Bureau, who led the press conference, said on Wednesday.
After that, Chounthala, still on the ground, was then hit by the car, which was last seen heading east on Artesia Boulevard in Bellflower.
After two months of investigation with no arrests, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department issued a reward to obtain any more information that could lead to the arrest of those who beat and killed Chounthala. At the press conference, the department provided some details on the incident. LASD said the car that hit Chounthala was a dark-colored 4-door Kia K5, likely a model made between 2021 and 2023. It’s not clear if the driver of the car was one of the assailants and LASD provided only limited information in its press conference.
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Chounthala joined the Marine Corps in 2008 and served several tours in Afghanistan. At the time of his death he had been assigned to the Wounded Warriors Battalion, based out of Camp Pendleton. According to Chounthala’s sister Witpha Chounthala, he was set to retire from the military at the end of this year. Chouthala left behind a wife and a three-year-old son. His wife, Jurina Chounthala, is an active-duty member of the Air Force. At Wednesday’s press conference, she urged anyone with information on the assault to reach out, so that “hopefully we can have some closure.”
“He was everything to me, to my family, to our friends and family. He’s like the glue that held all of us together,” she said.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact the LASD Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 or the Crime Stoppers line at (800) 222-8477.