Nguyen Huy Vu, one of the most beloved, award-winning reporters in OC Weekly history, is on artificial life support tonight in a Los Angeles County hospital and, according to doctors, isn't expected to survive.
The 34-year-old, who was my ambitious, idealistic first intern nearly 10 years ago, collapsed during a Mother's Day soccer game after scoring a goal, suffered cardiac arrest and has not regained consciousness.
Vu–who also worked at the Orange County Register, Seattle Times, Nguoi Viet, Associated Press and, at the time of his collapse, the Daily Breeze–was a determined journalist, fun-loving character and the person who taught me how to eat pho. He'd married about six months ago and was, according to his parents, happier than ever.
“I can't believe my son is gone,” said Vu's father, a decorated former South Vietnamese air force fighter pilot. “It's not right when parents out live a son.”
–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
