The location where Mark Wahlberg assaulted Hoa Trinh

This is the location where Mark Wahlberg assaulted a Vietnamese man named Hoa Trinh.

It is situated on the corner of Dorchester Avenue and Pearl Street in Boston, Massachusetts.

Wahlberg was a troubled teenager. Before his rise to fame, the Hollywood actor was a poor high school dropout who was heavily involved in drugs and street crime.

During this period of his life, he carried out a number of racist assaults, one of which involved him chasing a group of Black children while shouting racial slurs and throwing stones at them.

Wahlberg's most serious and widely talked-about incident occurred on Dorchester Avenue, when he violently attacked two Vietnamese men in the space of five minutes.

At around 9 p.m. on April 8th, 1988, the 16-year-old was standing outside of 998 Dorchester Avenue when he attempted to steal beer from a man named Thanh Lam.

Wahlberg, who was holding a five-foot stick, reportedly shouted, "Vietnam f*cking sh*t", before hitting Lam over the head and knocking him unconscious. The force of the attack was so great that the stick broke into two pieces.

When a police car arrived at the scene, Wahlberg and his friends fled south on Dorchester Avenue.

After reaching this corner near Pearl Street, they spotted another Vietnamese man named Hoa Trinh, who was completely unaware that a violent assault had occurred further up the street.

In an attempt to fool the approaching officers, Wahlberg put his arm around Trinh's shoulder and shouted, "The police are coming. The police are coming. Let me hide."

This tactic worked, as the patrol car initially continued driving past the pair. However, instead of thanking Trinh for pretending to be his friend, Wahlberg immediately turned around and punched him in the eye.

Soon after, the police detained the 16-year-old, and Trinh identified him as his attacker.

At that point, the police brought him back to the scene of the first assault, where he made a series of racist remarks about Vietnamese people and proudly admitted that he was the person who had struck Lam over the head with a stick.

Wahlberg eventually pleaded guilty to felony assault and was sentenced to two years in prison. However, he was released after just 45 days in jail.

He later claimed that he was high on PCP (phencyclidine) when he committed the crimes.

Although a number of news articles state that Trinh lost his sight in the attack, this is untrue, as his eye was removed in 1975 due to an injury that he received while fighting in the Vietnam War.

Photos

Photos of the corner and other related images.

Thanh Lam

Image source: Google Maps

The first assault occurred outside 998 Dorchester Avenue at around 9 p.m., when Wahlberg struck Thanh Lam over the head with a large stick.

Coordinates: 42.316585, -71.056634

Google Maps

Assault

When a police car appeared at the scene, Wahlberg and his friends ran south on Dorchester Avenue.

Hoa Trinh

The second assault occurred on the corner of Dorchester Avenue and Pearl Street, when Wahlberg punched Hoa Trinh in the eye.

In 2014, the actor applied for a pardon for his crimes in Massachusetts. However, this ignited so much controversy that he eventually abandoned his application.

He later said that he regretted applying for one.

Following the controversy, Wahlberg met with Trinh and apologized for the attack.