Father recounts pain of seeing his 10-year-old son killed at family’s nail salon
Hai Nam Vu, wiping the tears off his face with a tissue, recounted his terror when an ordinary Friday at his family-owned nail salon ended with gunmen busting in, demanding money and gunning down Vu’s 10-year-old son as he watched.
After stealing more than $300 in cash and jewelry from customers and employees, the two thieves were on their way out when one turned and fired twice inside the salon, hitting both Vu and Aaron Vu, his 10-year-old son. While Vu survived, Aaron, who loved Street Fighter action figures and Beats by Dre headphones, didn’t.
“I took a few steps forward and fell because so much blood was coming out of my body,” said Vu, testifying Monday about what happened on Nov. 22, 2013, at Hong Kong Nails salon in northwest Miami-Dade.
Vu’s testimony was part of the sentencing trial that began Monday for Anthawn Ragan Jr., who pleaded guilty last month to shooting Aaron to death. Ragan is facing the death penalty, the second time he’s faced that sentence within the past year.
READ MORE: Man behind crime spree that killed 10-year-old pleads guilty, faces death penalty
At his first trial last year, a jury sentenced Ragan, 31, to a lifetime behind bars for the murder of a small-time drug dealer at a motel during his three-week crime wave in November 2013.
But the trial stemming from the nail salon was different. On Monday, Ragan was dressed in orange jail attire, instead of in a suit, and the box usually filled with jurors was empty. Ragan waived his right to have a jury decide his sentence, opting instead for Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez to do so, an unusual move for a defendant facing execution.
Ragan could be condemned to Florida’s Death Row for Aaron’s murder. Aaron’s death galvanized South Florida, with family, friends and longtime customers at the salon attending his viewing and funeral services.
Emotionally grueling accounts
On the stand, Vu wiped tears from his face as he spoke about the pain of losing his son.
“We used to be a happy family,” Vu said. “We don’t celebrate any more holidays. I can’t explain to you the pain...”
After walking over to a lectern to speak directly to Tinkler Mendez, Vu said he forgave Ragan because his son would have done that.
“Nothing is going to bring my son back..., but I’m thankful that at least he’ll be sent to prison where he’ll never hurt another innocent person again,” Vu said.
Aaron’s mother, Lindsey Ma, broke down on the witness stand when the attorneys began to play the 911 call she made after the shooting. Ma stepped down and rushed out of the courtroom, in tears, as the call was played.
Another family member wailed as the chaos in the nail salon was detailed in the phone call.
On Monday, Aaron’s loved ones and supporters packed the right side of the courtroom. Family members wiped their tears with tissues as prosecutor Scott Warfman spoke about how the child was gunned down in cold blood.
Ragan sat quietly throughout the proceeding but frequently bounced his leg, rocked in his chair and rubbed his hands on his face.
Life or death?
Staring Ragan down, Warfman called the killer the “menace of Northwest Seventh Ave” as much of Ragan’s crime spree occurred along the roadway. Ragan, the prosecutor said, struck fear into the community until he was caught by police, hiding under bedsheets in his sister’s house.
Ragan committed crimes of violence against 18 other people, leaving “ripple effects” on all them, Warfman said. But he especially traumatized Aaron’s parents and siblings, who had to witness the 10-year-old boy be struck by a bullet at the nail salon.
“It raises the question, could it be any worse than that?” the prosecutor said.
Warfman argued that the case warrants the death penalty despite the murder not being carried out in a heinous, atrocious or cruel manner — or being committed with heightened premeditation.
“They [suffer] because of what Mr. Ragan has done,” Warfman said. “They were living their life until Mr. Ragan absolutely obliterated that life.”
Facing the judge, defense attorney Tony Moss summarized the evidence presented in Ragan’s previous sentencing trial, over which Tinkler Mendez also presided.
Ragan’s father was locked up for life after being convicted of murder while Ragan was still in his mother’s womb. (Moss defended Ragan’s father in a murder case in the 1990s.) Ragan was exposed to crime from an early age, the attorney said. His family members were absent during his upbringing, many serving time behind bars for serious crimes.
Moss explained how mental health experts were unable to diagnose Ragan because he refused to cooperate with them. Ragan, however, was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder by several professionals, the attorney said.
For Moss, there is “no question” that Ragan will never again be a danger to the community if he is sentenced to life. The attorney added that Ragan will not be able to appeal as he pleaded guilty, meaning Aaron’s parents won’t have to relive their son’s slaying in court.
“What a life sentence can provide can be finality,” Moss said. “This will be the last court proceeding they will ever have to attend.”
Not Ragan’s first death case
Ragan’s violent crime spree began with the Nov. 1, 2013, execution-style killing of drug dealer Luis Miguel Perez at a motel and ended with the Nov. 22, 2013, murder of Aaron at the salon at 14832 NW Seventh Ave.
Last May, a Miami jury voted to sentence Ragan to life in prison, rather than the death penalty, for Perez’s murder.
By the end of the three-week crime spree, Ragan was responsible for two killings, two attempted murders and a vicious robbery at an all-night hamburger joint.
This story was originally published February 9, 2026 at 4:41 PM.
