Son Tells Police He Bludgeoned His Father to Death

A Chatsworth man allegedly bludgeoned his father to death Sunday, police said.

“He told the officers he had killed his father with some kind of hammer,” LAPD Officer Gregory Baek told the Los Angeles Times.

The weapon may have been a sledgehammer, according to KCBS2.

Jun Hyuk Chang, 45, was booked into the Van Nuys jail at 9:38 p.m. Sunday on
suspicion of murder, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's
website. He was being held without bail.

The son was the only suspect, LAPD Officer Charles Rodriguez told Chatsworth Patch. Although first reported as a shooting, the slaying was the result of a family dispute, Rodriguez said.

• Click here for KCAL9 video report.

The father, Sun Chil Chang, 78, was pronounced dead at the scene, an upscale, two-story, five-bedroom home on more than half an acre in the 21300 block of Candice Place in Chatsworth. The son, Jun Hyuk Chang, was immediately taken into custody.

The family, which is Korean, has had trouble communicating with other residents in the block because of a language barrier, neighbors said. The family lived quietly and recently terraced their sloped backyard with railroad ties and planted fruit trees, neighbors said.

At 8 p.m. two police cars remained outside the house. The front door was open and bright yellow light flooded the entryway. KCBS2 reported that police were still waiting for a judge to sign a search warrant giving them complete access to the home. They got that access at about 11 p.m.

Property records show the house was most recently sold in 2004 to Tae Sook Chang, and a business was run from the home under the name Tae Sook Chang Suntae. It was described as an "amusement and recreation services" company and a "martial arts academy" on websites.

-- City News Service, KCBS2 and the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.