LASD seeks witnesses to May killing of Marine in Bellflower

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives and relatives of a Marine who was killed after being beaten and run over by a car in Bellflower on Wednesday asked witnesses or people with information on the killing to come forward.

Peter Chounthala, 42, was attacked by at least two male suspects at approximately 2 a.m. May 28 near the intersection of Virginia Avenue and Artesia Boulevard, according to the sheriff’s department. After Chounthala collapsed in the street, a car ran over him and the driver fled the scene.

Chounthala, a husband and father of a 3-year-old boy, died at the scene.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a reward offer of $20,000 earlier this month for information that leads to the suspects’ arrest and conviction. According to the motion introduced by Supervisor Janice Hahn, Chounthala was an active-duty Marine who served tours and was injured in Afghanistan.

Authorities did not provide a description of the suspects who attacked Chounthala, then ran from the crime scene. Sheriff’s investigators did say the car that struck the victim was a dark-colored, four-door 2021-2023 Kia K5 sedan.

“His sense of humor, his generosity … he was everything to me, to my family, to our friends and family,” his wife Jurina said at a news briefing in Monterey Park. “He is like the glue that held all of us together.”

His sister Witpha said her Chounthala “was loved by many.” She said “he was a father, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a friend and a Marine.”

Witnesses or people with information on the case can contact LASD Detectives Robert McGaughey or Steve Bragg at 323-890-5500. Tips can be submitted anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers, 800-222-8477.

City News Service contributed to this report.