LOS ANGELES – To the Filipino American community, Joseph Ileto will always be a reminder of the danger lurking on the fabled streets of the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.  Ten years ago, Ileto, a FilAm postal service worker, was shot dead in the line of duty by an avowed white supremacist who was later convicted and slapped two life sentences without the possibility of parole.

A decade later, Ileto’s assailant appears to have had a change of heart.

Buford O’Neal Furrow Jr., 47, the gunman who killed Ileto after unloading 70 rounds from a semiautomatic at a cluster of children at a Jewish school in San Fernando Valley, has renounced racism and expressed remorse for his crime.

“I feel a life based on hate is no life at all,” Furrow said in a letter from the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.  “(Victims and their families) probably will never forgive me, but I am truly sorry and deeply regret the pain I caused,” the convicted murderer said in a letter to a reporter seeking an interview to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the crime.

Ileto and Furrow had never met previously.

Furrow told authorities he chose to shoot Ileto because the latter was a minority and employee of the federal government.  He said he targeted the Jewish school as “a wake-up call to America to kill Jews.”

Furrow did not explain why or how his values have changed.

Relatives of Joseph Ileto aired mixed reaction to Buford’s new sentiments.

“It still hurts that our brother and son was taken from us, and a letter won’t make up for that,” Joseph’s brother Ismael Ileto said on behalf of his mother and sisters.  “It’s a positive thing that he’s saying he’s changed.  It gives us some type of hope that people are able to rehabilitate themselves.  And if this is a hopeful sign if it is true that this type of hateful thinking can someday be turned around.”

Joseph Ileto was going about his daily routine on August 10, 1999 when a motorist stopped in the middle of the road in Chatsworth, Los Angeles County, to speak to him.

Ileto was asked if he was a federal employee.

The letter carrier promptly replied yes.

The stranger thereupon pulled out a gun and fired pointblank at Ileto, who died instantly.

The shooter had just driven in from the North Valley Jewish Community Center in nearby Granada Hills, and shot three children, a summer camp counselor, and an adult staff member.

Buford drove on to Las Vegas where he surrendered to the police.

Ileto was one of the few known Filipino American killed in a racially motivated incident since the shooting death of Fermin Tobera, which triggered the 1930s Delano race riots.  Ileto became a symbol of the campaign to end racial hatred.  His name joined those of Jim Loo and Vincent Chin, who were killed out of misinformation and misdirected resentment against Japanese automakers.  Loo, Chin and Ileto were all murdered by self-proclaimed white supremacists.

"I never thought that there was such hatred right here in the U.S.," said Lilian Ileto, Joseph’s mother. "It's really a senseless killing because of the color of his skin."

Community advocates including Filipino American activists, notably the Filipinos for Affirmative Action and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, stood by the Iletos, demanding justice. 

Some clamored for capital punishment for Buford, who reportedly hails from Tacoma, Washington.  Buford pleaded guilty to murder and firearms charges, thereby avoiding the death penalty. 

Buford at his March 2001 sentencing attributed his actions to mental illness.  He had tried to have himself committed prior to the rampage, he said.

Reading from a letter at the sentencing, he said he wanted to “try, although it is impossible, to convey my deep sorrow” to the families of the victims.

The next time he was heard from was last month when he revealed the alleged shift in his values.

“I now publicly renounce all bias toward anyone based on race, creed, color, sexual orientation, etc. and am a much happier person,” stated a handwritten letter attributed to Buford.  “About five years ago I threw away my racist books, literature, etc. and took up a new leaf.”

The authenticity of the letter has not been questioned but its composition is under speculation by some reporters.  Prison authorities apparently had thumbed down interview requests. 

Victims either declined to comment or questioned the motives behind the letter.

Ismael Ileto was forthcoming, however.

“We hope people, when they see this letter published, will consider also how much it still hurts us, and that can never be corrected.  If he (Buford) is asking for forgiveness, all we’re saying is, ‘Ask God.’  You can’t do something and then write a remorseful letter now and everything’s OK.”