The deadliest mass murder in Washington State history, killing 13 of 14 victims at a Seattle gambling club in 1983.
Key Facts
- Date
- February 18–19, 1983
- Victims shot
- 14 people
- Deaths
- 13 people
- Survivors
- 1 (Wai Yok Chin)
- Perpetrators
- Kwan Fai Mak, Keung Kin Ng, Wai Chiu Ng
- Tony Ng sentence
- 30 years; deported to Hong Kong in 2014
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Three men—Kwan Fai 'Willie' Mak, Keung Kin 'Benjamin' Ng, and Wai Chiu 'Tony' Ng—planned a robbery targeting the Wah Mee, an illegal gambling club in Seattle's Chinatown-International District known to hold large sums of cash. The motive was financial gain through armed robbery.
On the night of February 18–19, 1983, the three gunmen entered the Wah Mee gambling club at the Louisa Hotel in Seattle, bound all fourteen patrons, robbed them, and shot each victim. Thirteen of the fourteen died; the sole survivor, 61-year-old Wai Yok Chin, later testified against the perpetrators in separate trials held between 1983 and 1985.
Mak received an initial death sentence later overturned in 1988, and both Mak and Benjamin Ng were sentenced to life imprisonment. Tony Ng received 30 years and was deported to Hong Kong in 2014 after serving 28 years. The massacre remains the deadliest mass murder in Washington State history and drew widespread attention to crime in Seattle's Chinatown community.