Remembering Joseph Ileto – Victim of White Supremacist Murder in 1999

White supremacist who had gone on a rampage to kill Jews gunned down a Filipino American postal worker

Joseph Ileto

On August 10, 1999, Joseph Ileto died after being shot nine times moments after agreeing to deliver a letter for the man who killed him. Buford O’Neal Furrow, Jr. started the day opening fire with a semi-automatic weapon in the lobby of the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center. He fired 70 times, injuring five people including three boys, ages 5 & 6.

Furrow escaped the initial scene of violence and eventually coming upon Ileto, a Filipino American postal worker on the job of delivering mail for the U.S. Postal Service. Furrow admitted to shooting Ileto because he thought he was either Latino or Asian.

Furrow continues to serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole. During the trial, prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty in exchange for the guilty plea.

Neighborhood Safety Companions (NSC) makes reference to the Ileto case to assist others in seeing the historical context to present-day violence facing Asian Americans, including Filipinos in the U.S.

Neighborhood Safety Companions (NSC) is grateful that the recent Nicholas Weber assault on the Roque family in May 2022 did not result in such degree of tragedy. Some members of NSC are questioning why Weber is not being charged with attempted murder, as he verbally threatened to kill members of the Roque family and was possibly only prevented from doing so because of the good-Samaritan intervention of three bystanders at the scene.

Read/listen more about the Ileto hate crime murder:
https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/death-by-discrimination
https://thisfilipinoamericanlife.com/2019/08/