A beloved Oberlin College professor and his wife were found shot dead in their Ohio home Wednesday, and their 31-year-old son — who asked a judge to use gender-neutral pronouns at arraignment — now faces six counts of murder, exposing the brutal limits of institutional ideology when a family fractures from within.
Oberlin College has burned through millions on diversity programming and progressive posturing, branding itself among the wokest campuses in America. None of it saved Pipo Nguyen-Duy, 64, or his wife Tran Thi Phong, 56, from being gunned down in their own home. The suspect is their own flesh and blood.
Police identified the suspect as Daniel Jones, of Ashland, Oregon. At Thursday's arraignment, Jones asked the judge to use gender-neutral pronouns and said they go by the name Asia Nguyen-Duy, according to NBC News. The Guardian framed it differently, reporting that Jones's lawyer said her client preferred to go by a "birth name" — a curious characterization for someone legally known as Daniel Jones who adopted the father's Vietnamese surname only upon request to the court.
The investigation began around 9 a.m. Wednesday when officers responded to a smoldering Toyota hatchback with Oregon plates and a pipe sticking out of the roof in an Oberlin College parking lot. The car was registered to Jones. Ammunition, along with Jones's wallet and passport, was found inside, according to The Guardian.
About an hour later, police responded to a call from a resident reporting a "wet, disheveled man" at her door. The prosecutor said Jones had asked the woman to record a video to post online, in which Jones claimed to be "escaping a cult" and stated: "everything I did was on my own accord and I take full responsibility." Officers found Jones with scratches on their face and injuries to their arm and hand. Jones told police they had killed their family and provided the address, the prosecutor said.
Police forced entry into the home. Nguyen-Duy was found dead on the first floor; Phong was found in an upstairs bedroom. The murder weapon has not been recovered.
Jones's biological mother in Oregon — too upset to comment, according to NBC News — told officials her child had a mental illness and required medication, The Guardian reported. That detail, buried deep in the Guardian's coverage, is the kind of information that matters to ordinary Americans trying to understand how a family reaches this point.
Bond was set at $3 million. No plea has been entered. A motive remains unclear.
Nguyen-Duy fled Vietnam as a political refugee in 1975 and built a distinguished career, earning a Guggenheim fellowship and chairing Oberlin's studio art department. College president Carmen Twillie Ambar called him "a cherished colleague and a vibrant presence."
A refugee built a life from nothing in America. The institution that employed him for nearly 30 years had every resource at its disposal. And still, the violence came from inside the house.
