At 11:30 p.m. on July 15, 2022, a bullet ended the life of a mother, a wife, a refugee, a restaurant owner, a community leader.
Ma Kaing was killed as she unloaded food from her car outside her family’s apartment building in Denver’s East Colfax neighborhood. Across the street, young men in a dispute with neighborhood rivals fired more than 40 shots from a nearby park.
Kaing’s son, Kyaw Oo, held his mother as she died on the sidewalk that night.
On Friday afternoon, a Denver prosecutor read a letter from Oo in court as the son asked a judge to punish his mother’s killer.
“I remember the time, the night, every second,” Oo wrote. “I held her as she took her last breath. I promised her I would take care of her family. As her eldest, I remember that promise with every breath.”
The shooter, Lu Reh, 23, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for his role in Kaing’s death. He was convicted in February of first-degree murder along with 14 other charges in connection with Kaing’s death.
Reh declined to speak when offered the chance at Friday’s hearing by Denver District Judge Nikea T. Bland.
“Ma Kaing was a beloved member of the community and honestly a champion of the American dream,” Bland said.
Two accomplices, Nu La and Swa Bay, pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder for their roles in Kaing’s murder. A fourth man, 20-year-old Pa Reh, is scheduled for trial in July.
Kaing’s family chose not to attend the sentencing hearing.
Kaing and her family had worked late that night to fulfill a catering order. They were carrying pans of dessert from the car to Hidden Brook Apartments at 1313 Xenia St. when a bullet from the gunfight struck her.
The restaurant had been one of Kaing’s dreams. Six months earlier, the family had opened Taw Win Thai and Burmese Restaurant, serving food from Kaing’s native Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
“Her spirit came alive in every dish,” Oo wrote in his letter.
Kaing’s life was never easy.
She lost her oldest child, a daughter, to war in Myanmar. Kaing, her husband and two other children fled in 2007, settling in Colorado. She had two more sons after arriving in the United States.
The family lived in an often neglected area of Denver that straddles the border with Aurora. Many residents are refugees and immigrants from all over the world who came to Colorado to escape violence, said Anthony Santos, senior deputy district attorney for the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
“The neighborhood is almost jaded with the violence they have seen,” Santos said, describing shootouts that often happen.
The violence found Kaing.
Reh and his co-defendants, who were hanging out in New Freedom Park, sprayed a city block with more than 40 bullets, Santos said. They said they were shooting at a car driven by people they had a dispute with and feared they were going to be shot.
“It’s a miracle that more people weren’t hit,” Santos said.
The death brought intense outrage to the East Colfax neighborhood.
When Kaing was shot, her daughter, then 17, dialed 911, but her call bounced between law enforcement dispatch centers because cellular call-routing systems had not been updated. Her call first went to the Aurora dispatch center before she was transferred to Denver.
The family said it took about 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and questioned whether their mother could have been saved had one arrived sooner.
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Kaing was a pillar of the East Colfax community, serving on the neighborhood association’s board of directors and volunteering at a community food bank. She was known by almost everyone in the Hidden Brook Apartments, and she was especially helpful to other Burmese refugees.
Oo wrote in his letter that his mother wanted the family to come to the United States to have better opportunities. She was proud when she watched their graduations and saved every penny she could to open Taw Win.
“Ma Kaing, my mother, was the foundation of that dream,” Oo wrote. “She was the reason we survived. The reason we thrived.”
She was a strong mother who also found time to make sure neighbors had enough food and clothes, often sharing vegetables she grew in a community garden.
Oo wrote that he would not forgive the people who killed his mother, even though she likely would have. He pledged to carry on with her legacy, spirit and values.
“Her strength runs through all of us, and we will carry her grace with strength and dignity,” Oo wrote.
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