Pvt. Danny Chen, 19, of Chinatown, was laid to rest with full military honors yesterday — as the Army continued to investigate reports that he was racially taunted by fellow infantrymen before he was found fatally shot in Afghanistan.
“We want the truth now. It’s really sad he is getting buried and we don’t know what happened,” said family friend Winsy Dong, 27.
Chen was found in a base guard tower on Oct. 3 with a noncombat-related gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators informed his parents, Yan Toa and Su Zhen Chen, that their son had been dragged out of his bed by six soldiers and that bruises were found on his back.
Frank Gee, interpreting for the family, said the investigators asked “to see his communications — e-mails, letters — to see if there were any problems at the camp.”
“There is no bitterness toward the Army [on the part of Chen’s parents],” Gee said. “They just want to find out what happened so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Some 100 mourners attended yesterday’s Buddhist ceremony at the Wah Wing Sang Funeral Home on Mott Street.
A giant display in Chinese cited the young soldier’s “loyalty to his country.”