Traditionally, the sale of illegal fireworks was a major source of gang revenue in Chinatown. As the Fourth of July approached each year, young people would stream into the district from all over the Bay Area to score firecrackers and other forbidden pyrotechnics. In 1977, the Ping Boys, residents of the Ping Yuen projects on Pacific Avenue, ran the operation under the auspices of the Wah Ching, for 10% of the take. On July 4, figuring to get their share of the accumulated loot, a group of Joe Boys headed for the Ping Yeun Projects with a view to robbing the Ping Boys of the proceeds from the sales. By this time, Joe Fong himself had been in prison for several years and though he was no longer on the street to exercise direct control of the gang, his followers continued to be referred to as â??Joe Boys.â?
The Joe Boys could not find a parking place nearby, and, as they approached the projects on foot, they were spotted by their enemies. In the ensuing gun battle on Pacific Avenue, one Joe Boy, Felix Louie, was killed and four others were wounded. The Joe Boys believed that Wah Ching leader Michael â??Hot Dogâ? Louie had been the architect of their defeat. They retired to plan their revenge.
The Joe Boys nursed their wounded feelings for three months and then, in the early morning hours of Sunday, September 4, 1977, tipped off that Michael Louie was present in the Golden Dragon Restaurant on Washington Street, they attacked. (Although Louie was there, most of the gang was out of town in Northern California.) As three masked armed men entered the restaurant, Louie saw them coming and hit the floor. The shooters sprayed the restaurant with fire from shotguns and semi-automatic weapons, killing five innocent bystanders and wounding 11 more in the fusillade. The Golden Dragon Restaurant, significantly enough, was owned by the Hop Sing Tong whose youth faction, the Hop Sings Boys, were sometimes allied with the Wah Ching.
The press reaction was as might be expected. It was one thing for gangsters to kill one another in occasional street shootings; it was quite another thing to shoot down innocent bystanders in a public restaurant. The public was aroused, and called for action.
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