Philly man arrested in 2022 murder-for-hire killing in southwest Pa.
Tuan M. Dang, who was arrested Tuesday evening by the FBI in Philadelphia, is charged with first-degree murder.
A 47-year-old Philadelphia man has been arrested in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire plot that led to the shooting death of another Philadelphia man outside a sushi restaurant in southwest Pennsylvania, authorities said Wednesday.
Tuan M. Dang, who was arrested Tuesday evening by the FBI in Philadelphia, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, and criminal solicitation, said Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole W. Ziccarelli.
On Nov. 5, 2022, police in Rostraver Township, which is about 25 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, responded to a reported shooting in a parking lot at the Rostraver Square shopping plaza and found 49-year-old Boyke Budiarachman dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to his head.
Keven Van Lam, another Philadelphia man who had dinner with the victim at the sushi restaurant before the shooting, was interviewed by authorities the next day.
Lam told investigators that he was a friend and business associate of the victim and that he had purchased a temporary staffing agency from him in 2019, Ziccarelli said.
Lam claimed that Budiarachman was siphoning employees from his business and told investigators he had confronted Budiarachman several times about taking employees and revenue from him, Ziccarelli said.
Investigators allege that Lam arranged a $65,000 hit on Budiarachman by contacting an individual from South Philadelphia identified as Tuan Dang. Lam allegedly had claimed he wanted Budiarachman shot in the leg, but then claimed he wanted Budiarachman struck with a baseball bat.
Lam allegedly notified Dang on the day of the murder that he would be having dinner with Budiarachman at the Rostraver Square shopping plaza and would notify him when they were leaving the restaurant.
Surveillance video showed Lam and Budiarachman leaving the restaurant to their separate vehicles and then an unidentified masked man approached the victim and shot him in the head.
Lam told investigators he drove to Philadelphia after the shooting and put a duffle bag with the $65,000 in a prearranged location for Dang to retrieve, Ziccarelli said.
Dang allegedly told the FBI that Lam hired him to harm the victim in exchange for a sum of money, then Dang made arrangements with an unidentified shooter to carry out the murder-for-hire plot, Ziccarelli said.
Lam is being held without bail and is tentatively scheduled for a trial in May.
For 10 days in 2022, the case was kept secret by a Westmoreland County judge apparently to give time for investigators to find any co-conspirators.
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania later ruled that the judge “abused” his discretion.