NEW ORLEANS — Long Van Nguyen, 84, was the patriarch of his New Orleans family.
“He never yelled at us and we did some mischievous things,” said Nguyen’s oldest daughter Khana Nguyen-Dufour. “There are seven of us, 20 grandkids, he never yelled at anyone of us.”
Nguyen-Dufour says her father sudden death has left an emptiness in the family.
“He just smiled a lot and he was incredibly reserved, very kind, very compassionate,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
The man who was looked up to and admired was killed in a hit-and-run on August 26, 2021, in Algiers.
“It’s a struggle every day,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
Nguyen-Dufour says her dad was doing yard work around one of his rental properties on Westpark Court that morning, something he did routinely. Then she got a call.
“I received a call that dad was on the ground at Westpark Court and his head was bleeding and that’s all we knew,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
New Orleans police say he was hit while trimming the curb, found lying in a driveway.
“In the ambulance he was still able to say, ‘A truck hit me,’ and it was off white, cream, something like that. Those were the last words that he said,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
Nguyen spent the next two days on a ventilator at University Medical Center.
“The impact was so hard it just traumatized all of his organs from head to toe,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
He died just hours before the hospital went on lockdown ahead of Hurricane Ida.
“We know God was watching him. We were all able to see him take his last breath which was at 2pm on Aug 28, 2021,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
More than a year later, no one has been arrested.
“We have done a lot of work, a lot of detective work on our end as well, just to help police officers,” said Nguyen-Dufour. “The person is out there. He’s out there”
Nguyen-Dufour says that work hasn’t been well received by the New Orleans Police Department. No one from the department made themselves available to talk Eyewitness News about the case. Nguyen’s family hoped the days, even months, after his death would yield results.
“We expected something and we didn’t receive anything,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
As an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen fought against communist rule during the Vietnam War. He left his South Vietnam home with his wife and children when the war ended in 1975.
With eyes set on the United States, they settled in New Orleans. Nguyen-Dufour was just a year old at the time.
“His proudest piece is his ID tag from the war, and he carried that,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
Nguyen-Dufour says her father was a hard-working man. He owned the Horseshoe Grocery in Algiers for nearly three decades, he was a retired welder, a shrimper, and never stopped doing odd jobs.
“You would never even know he’s 84 years old because he was still doing chin ups on his birthday, every single birthday,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
Nguyen-Dufour often worries her dad’s case won’t be solved but knows celebrating her dad’s life means living hers.
“We do have peace, only because we know he’s in a beautiful place and he is still with us in spirit,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
A spirit that still guides the family and will always be part of it; they just want closure.
“There’s still hope as long as there are people who are caring in this world. We are hopeful that something can be done,” said Nguyen-Dufour.
There is a $12,500 Crimestoppers reward in this case. Tips are anonymous. The number to Crimestoppers is 504-822-1111.