May 8, 1963, at 8:00 p.m. that a large crowd, under the leadership of Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Venerable Thích Trí Quang, besieged Huế radio station to broadcast their request for religious rights. The station director refused to facilitate their request and proceeded to deny the Buddhists access by barricading himself. He called on the local fire station and government security forces to prevent the Buddhists from voicing their plight. The firemen were unable to disperse the crowd with fire hose. Đặng's security forces arrived, with armored vehicles, to negotiate with the Venerable and the station director. An agreement was reached and the Venerable was working to disperse the crowd. A series of explosions blasted exterior of the radio station while Đặng and Quang were inside, causing a massive stampede. On the pretext of "defending" against possible "Việt Cộng attack" in darkness, Dang signaled his men, with three shots to the air, to use MK3A2 concussion grenades to subdue the crowd and "secure" the area. After the crowd dispersed, there were eight people dead and one person dying. The Diệm government dismissed charges of misconduct. Later, however, the South Vietnamese military junta tried and Đặng and sentenced him to death in 1964 for charges including shooting into an unarmed crowd, having armored vehicles ran over protesters, and using dangerous, high explosives for crowd control. Đặng, primarily on his own, maintained his and his men's innocence. When the military tribunal pronounced sentence, thousands lined the streets in protest, prompting some international observers to speculate that an internal civil war was about to erupt. Facing internal unrest and U.S. government disapproval, Khánh commuted Đặng's death sentence to life with hard labour at Côn Sơn with payments to victims' families. Post-military career In 1967, the Thiệu civilian government repealed the life sentence and restored his rank. Dang chose to resign to civilian life and worked at Bank of America in Saigon. From 1969 until the Fall of Saigon, he was the chairman of the executive board for an import-export company, South Asia Facilities. After April 1975, Dang was imprisoned for his military career with the former regime. In March 1980, Dang was released and escaped to Indonesia by boat. He was reunited with his family in December of the same year. Subsequently, he worked with Baltimore County Department of Social Services and U.S. Catholic Charities to help Vietnamese refugees until his retirement. Death