As friends and family tell it, you'd just as likely find Brody Koga playing Facebook games online with nieces and nephews as you'd see him watching a movie alone in the theater.
They never thought he would die trying to chase down a stolen pack of cigarettes.
"You don't want this for anybody,” said Jackie Belles, one of Koga's co-workers at the Rite Aid on Southeast 256th Street in Kent. "But it was just so sad because Brody out of all people didn't deserve this. He was a really good person."
Koga, 52, from SeaTac, was someone who kept to himself and seemed to like it that way.
"Brody was a guy everyone liked but nobody really knew," said Steve Shiromizu, his brother-in-law.
"He was real sweet and anyone who knows him would say the same thing," said Belles.
So it came as a surprise to many on Thursday evening when Koga, the store assistant manager, decided to chase down a shoplifter who had stolen a pack of cigarettes.
It came as a complete shock that those were his last conscious moments alive.
During the chase, the suspect ran out the front door and towards an adjacent parking lot. As he pursued, Koga toppled over some bushes atop a retaining wall behind the store.
Kent Police said he fell several feet down, struck his head hard, and had to be transported to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition.
Investigators said it was unclear if the shoplifter had any direct involvement in the fall. A Rite Aid spokesperson said they are working with police and offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of the suspect.
On Sunday, relatives said Koga had been pronounced brain dead and that they have made plans to donate his organs.
"It was so quick and it's not something that you think would happen," said Belles. "I was just on the phone with him half an hour before it happened... It seems really unreal."
Koga had lived in the Seattle area for the last 25 years, said relatives, after moving away from his family in Lodi, Calif.
No comments:
Post a Comment