\u201cwitches\u201d Noriega allegedly followed<\/a>. He said they saw a voodoo worship room with body parts and a cross painted in blood on the floor.<\/p>\nWhile there, he heard gunfire from the backyard and returned fire. He was shot twice, in his spine and lower left back. The bullet to his spine was partially deflected by his dog tag, which Park believes is the reason he wasn\u2019t paralyzed. A military ambulance was delayed because of the firefight, but a Vietnam veteran who lived nearby rescued him, Park said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just remember I\u2019m just lying in my own pool of blood and just leaking out badly. So he actually went home, got his pickup truck, put me in the back of his pickup truck with two soldiers, and drove me to the hospital,\u201d Park said.<\/p>\n
He was then evacuated to an Army hospital in San Antonio. A four-star general awarded him a Purple Heart at his bedside. Then-President George H.W. Bush visited wounded soldiers there. <\/p>\n
Park spent about two weeks there, and then went home for a month or so, until he could walk. His experience resulted in mental issues he didn\u2019t recognize, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest issue at the time, more than my injuries, was \u2014 I didn\u2019t know what it was at the time, nobody did, because there was no such thing as PTSD at the time,\u201d he said. Eventually, \u201cI realized I was suffering from PTSD badly, nightmares every night, severe. I couldn\u2019t hear loud noises, and at that time in L.A., you would hear gunshots every night you left the house, so I was paranoid at all times. And being a man and being a tough guy, I couldn\u2019t share this with anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park started self-medicating with marijuana, which he said helped him sleep. But he started doing harder drugs, eventually crack cocaine. He moved to Hawaii after his mother and stepfather\u2019s L.A. store burned during the 1992 riots, and married. After Park and his wife separated, he moved to New York City, where his addiction worsened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got really bad. It just got out of control \u2014 every day, every night, all day \u2014 just smoking, everything,\u201d Park said.<\/p>\n
One night, in the late 2000s, he was meeting his drug dealer at a Taco Bell in Queens when police surrounded his car, and the dealer fled while leaving a large quantity of crack in his glove compartment, Park said.<\/p>\n
A judge sent Park to rehab twice, but he said he was not ready to get sober.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just couldn\u2019t. I was an addict. It was so hard for me to stay clean. I\u2019d be good for 30 days and relapse,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d be good for 20 days and relapse. It was such a struggle. Finally, the judge told me, \u2018Mr. Park, the next time you come into my courtroom with the dirty urine, you\u2019re gonna go to prison.\u2019 So I got scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Park didn\u2019t return to court, drove to Los Angeles and then returned to Hawaii, skipping bail, which is an aggravated felony.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not know at the time jumping bail was an aggravated felony charge, and combined with my drug use, that\u2019s deportable for someone like me with my green card,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
U.S. Marshals were sent looking for Park, and he said once he heard about this, he turned himself in in August 2009, because he didn\u2019t want to be arrested in front of his two children.<\/p>\n
He served two years in prison and said immigration officials detained him for six months after he was released as he fought deportation orders. He was eventually released under \u201cdeferred action,\u201d an act of prosecutorial discretion by DHS to put off deportation.<\/p>\n
Every year since, Park was required to check in with federal officials and show that he was employed and sober. Meanwhile, he had sole custody of his two children, who are now 28 and 25. He was also caring for his 85-year-old mother, who is in the early stages of dementia.<\/p>\n
During his most recent check-in, Park was about to be handcuffed and detained, but immigration agents placed an ankle monitor on him and gave him three weeks to get his affairs in order and self-deport. He is not allowed to return to the United States for 10 years. He worries he will miss his mother\u2019s passing and his daughter\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the biggest part. But \u2026 it could be a lot worse too. I look at it that way also,\u201d Park said. \u201cSo I\u2019m grateful I made it out of the United States, I guess, without getting detained.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI always just assumed a green card, legal residency, is just like having citizenship,\u201d he added. \u201cI just never felt like I had to go get citizenship. And that\u2019s just being honest. As a kid growing up in the United States, I\u2019ve always just thought, hey, I\u2019m a green card holder, a legal resident, I\u2019m just like a citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n
His condition has spiraled since then.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright. I\u2019m losing it. Can\u2019t stop crying. I think PTSD kicking in strong,\u201d Park texted Belson on Thursday. \u201cJust want to get back to my family and take care of my mother … I\u2019m a mess.\u201d <\/p>\n
Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Army veteran who grew up in Van Nuys and was awarded a Purple Heart self-deported to South…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,13045,5412,21603,21604,21602,2961,224,2444,5337,17241,6141,3811,21605,15243,14166,6620,67,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-23917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-deportation","11":"tag-dhs","12":"tag-first-night","13":"tag-following-day","14":"tag-l-a-army-veteran","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-times","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-mother","20":"tag-park","21":"tag-ptsd","22":"tag-purple-heart-self-deport","23":"tag-south-korea","24":"tag-threat","25":"tag-time","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114765461178308769","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}