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Originally published January 3, 2015 at 1:23 PM | Page modified January 3, 2015 at 8:55 PM
Seattle doughnut-shop founders beaten, robbed
The founders of King Donuts, the popular Rainier Beach restaurant and laundromat, were beaten and robbed Friday night outside the store.
Seattle Times staff reporter
The founders of King Donuts, the popular Rainier Beach restaurant, doughnut shop and laundromat, were hospitalized Friday night after being robbed and beaten outside the shop.
Their daughter Davie Hay, who now owns the restaurant with her sister, Channa Hay, said her parents had just locked up at 7:15 p.m. Friday when a man ran up to her mother, Chea Pol, as she was getting into their car. He grabbed her purse and started punching her in the face, the daughter said.
Chea Pol’s husband, Heng Hay, ran over to help, but was punched and thrown onto the sidewalk, Davie Hay said. The robber then continued to punch Pol, 61.
“He punched her 10 to 15 times ... so hard her teeth were punched back toward her throat,” she said.
Davie Hay said her mom was taken first to Highline Medical Center, then to Harborview Medical Center, with a dislocated jaw.
“I couldn’t look at my mom laying up in the hospital like that,” she said. “I was sad, and angry and in disbelief that someone did that. After nearly 30 years of being here, that someone decided to come and do that.”
Heng Hay, 60, and Pol opened King Donut in 1987 after emigrating to the U.S. in 1981. Refugees from Cambodia, they escaped the killing fields of Pol Pot and the genocide that killed more than 1.5 million people during the 1970s.
The couple worked multiple jobs, saving money to one day open their own business; they decided on a doughnut shop.
Their original location was in a strip mall, but when it was torn down in 2003 they reopened in a bigger location 50 yards away at 9232 Rainier Ave. S.
To keep up with the rent, the couple added the laundromat and teriyaki food, replacing services the community had lost along with the strip mall.
Davie Hay and her sister took over the restaurant from their parents in 2009 after Heng Hay had a stroke, but both parents still work at the restaurant, doing everything from cooking to running the cash register, Davie Hay said.
Heng Hay left Highline Medical Center an hour after being admitted Friday night; Pol left Harborview Saturday morning but returned hours later with concussion-like symptoms, Davie Hay said. She has since been released.
Davie Hay said she believes the man who assaulted her parents targeted the store.
“My parents do the same routine every day ... they leave at night and I think someone just decided to go for it,” she said. “My dad even mentioned that he saw a guy walking around when he was cleaning up inside.”
Police say the suspect is a slim black man in his 20s to 30s, about 5-foot-7, who was last seen wearing a black jacket, black pants and a black baseball hat. They ask anyone with information to call 206-684-5540.
The man stole cash, an iPhone, an iPad, a star pendant with 16 small diamonds and a cream-colored Coach purse with light pink trim on top, Davie Hay said.
Since Hay posted on Facebook about her parents’ attack Friday night, she said, she has had an outpouring of support from customers.
Some people even brought flowers to the shop when it opened Saturday morning.
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