LITTLE TOKYO : Fund Honoring Two Slain Students Grows
Organizers of a concert honoring two Japanese college students who were slain during a March carjacking raised $500 to help establish a $20,000 endowment fund in the victims’ names.
Go Matsuura and Takuma Ito, film students at Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, were shot to death March 25 in a supermarket parking lot in San Pedro.
The suspect, Raymond Oscar Butler, pleaded not guilty Tuesday and is awaiting trial in Long Beach Superior Court.
In an effort to raise money for an annual film lecture series in the students’ names, the Japanese Village Plaza and Marymount College sponsored the July 23 concert and dinner program.
The event at Oiwake Restaurant drew 100 people, mainly members of the Little Tokyo and South Bay business communities and Marymount College officials, said Tom Kurai, Japanese Village Plaza spokesman.
College officials have raised more than $15,000 and hope to collect enough money to begin the campus lecture series this fall, inviting noted filmmakers, directors and screenwriters as speakers.
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