Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Ex-Gangster Breaks Silence on His Insane Past | Da Panda
Tue, 25 Mar 2025
Da Panda shares his life story about being involved with bloods in Atlanta. Pandas Links https://linktr.ee/da_pandaFollow me on all socials!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrimeDo you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7Send me an email here: [email protected] you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrimeDo you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopartListen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCFBent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TMIt's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5GDevil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3KBailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WXIf you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: How did Da Panda's journey begin?
Me and my mom escaped on a boat when I was six months old. And I was in a refugee camp in Thailand until I was probably about one and a half years old before I finally made it to America. Now, my whole thing is I got to do it. It's like this. Don't think. If you think, you're going to talk yourself out of it. Right. I don't think. I just react. So I punch him right in the face.
And eventually it caught up to you. It did. And as we were leaving, there were like four of them. on the side of the sidewalk, I guess going to their cars, you know? And at that point I stuck my nine millimeter out the window and I let go the entire mag.
I mean, like a van like literally blocks the back of the car and swats like jumping out and literally a helicopter is flying above the Bennegan's, you know, and it's like full on like on me. You know what I mean? I woke up on the ground conscious on the floor broken. Right. I look up. I can see it was like around eight or nine o'clock in the evening. I see a street lamp, you know, and like.
I was a practicing Georgia Southern Baptist at the time, but this was the day that I lost all religion.
Chapter 2: What turning point made Da Panda lose his faith?
Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I am here with Panda. He's got a true crime story that spans, I don't know, quite a long time, and it's super interesting. He is currently a rapper, entrepreneur, capitalist, and you're going to enjoy this story. I appreciate you guys watching. Check it out. And this is about the best we can, you know. I'm okay with that. I could do it. Okay. So, all right.
So Tyler got us here. Yes. And you've got the, we've got the soda.
Thank you, Tyler, for the soda.
All right. And so. let's, you know, what we were talking earlier, I know about the story, but I mean, I typically, I don't know if you've ever watched any of the episodes or not, but you know, I typically like start at like the beginning.
And like you were saying, you know, your parents like that, that to me is interesting that you're, you know, when your parents came here, like to me, I've been moving across the world to start a new life is that in and of itself is a journey.
Just my parents story alone. I think it's very interesting of like how they came. I was kind of like a Montague Capulet, uh, you know, uh, families that didn't really see eye to eye with each other. My father was from a wealthy family. My, my mother, uh, was from a loving family, you know, and they were actually not, weren't allowed to see each other.
They kind of like, this was like a secret, you know, rendezvous, secret love, love affair. And, uh, and it came along, but then it ended up not working out anyway. But, uh, yeah. So, uh,
was born in 1979 so uh it was like it's fairly soon after the vietnam vietnamese war the vietnam war ended in 1975. uh my dad was a part of the military over there and like uh my mom was forbidden to even see him but he would like sneak away and they would have their their little run of you and then i happened when when you say the okay so the
so basically they were like fleeing. Did they, were they fleeing communism or?
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Chapter 3: How did Da Panda become involved in gang life?
But it was like, you know, burglaries, robberies, stealing cars. And this is how old are you? I was like 14, 13 years old. I mean, I probably was familiar with a gun in my hand by the age of 12. You know, like I said, like my juvenile record was probably like
30 40 burglaries that they finally decide to just condense into just one when i turned the day after i turned 17 and was charged as an adult you know and then it was it was just it was extensive you know and it was it was kind of like sloppy you know what i mean it was like smash and grab we would literally take a sledgehammer to the front of a business run in there and grab us i mean we're not really coming up on like some really really big money you know what i mean
But it was the fact that like, you know, we're young kids and... I was going to say, listen, eight VCRs at, you know, 50 bucks a piece split between a few guys is 150 bucks a piece. You know what I'm saying? 150 bucks to a 14-year-old is a lot of money. It absolutely was.
And the thing that's funny is because my crew, we would literally go to Church's Chicken, get an eight-piece box, and each person would get a piece of chicken and a bowl of rice. And that's how we would sum our money together. And eight-piece box at Church's Chicken back then was like $5.99. And we could feed the whole crew. But definitely, yeah, we were drugs.
Even in Atlanta now, I mean, if you go looking up the line of like, hey, the bot from the user going on, who he gets it from, he gets it from, somewhere on that line. somebody's going to deal with a slant eyed person. Right. You know what I mean? Because in Georgia, they, they, they're, they're coming in at the top. Right. You know what I mean?
So, and I know lots of them, like a lot of black guys that I know, they're like, yeah, man, my, my plug is, I, I, I fucks with you Asian guys. You know what I'm saying? You know, but as an Asian, I always felt like, You know, they say the term model minority or whatever. With white people, I feel like we're tolerated. You know, we're looking at as like non-threatening. Right. Right.
And with with black folks, we look as looked at as easy victims, you know. So to me, it was always kind of like a fitting in. So really, we just fit in with each other.
You know, I was going to say, like, whenever I think of, you know, Asian crime, I always like I don't think of smash and grabs. I think of more sophisticated crimes because a lot I mean, it will look. Let me backtrack. That's not necessarily true. It's more complicated crimes. Like, they'll go... Like, I did a whole research thing on an Asian crime group, and they were triads.
It was a member of the triad. And, I mean, it was... They were staking out... manufacturing plants, staking them out. They're getting all the employees. They've got when they come, they go, the shifts, how many employees are there. They'd watch it for a week or so.
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Chapter 4: What was the incident that led to Da Panda's incarceration?
taking the cars and then shipping them back to China. It was super interesting.
No, there is no difference than the regular Chinese now who like they're manufacturing. Now, Vietnam does most of the manufacturing for China. We thought Chinese labor was cheap. Vietnamese labor is even cheaper. You know what I mean? So, you know, they're very smart in that way. You know, Chinese people definitely know how to
use other not I wouldn't even just say Chinese I would just say first world Asians yeah and it's funny because a buddy of mine he's Korean like he hates black people but he his all his business is
feeds off of them like he makes gold grills and he you know like you know he feeds off of them to for his income but internally he he hates them right you know what i mean and it's like um but yet they understand like hey this is where the money is this is how to get it and they're just they're still gonna deal with who they have to deal with they're not saying no we'll only deal with our kind they're saying i'll deal with anybody as long as i make money that's the thing about like like china like china's
extremely capitalist at this point, you know, you know, it's under the guise of communism, you know, but really they're, they're, they're definitely running a capitalist system.
I mean, even the Vietnam war, I believe was all based off of heroin. I mean, a lot of people have all these political views about it, but if you talk to the people in Vietnam, You know, they talk about the golden triangle. Yeah. The golden triangle basically. Defund the war somehow. Right. Well, the golden triangle basically was the area that was fertile for opium. Right.
You know, and and the Chinese wanted South Vietnam's land, you know, and because and that, you know, export, you know, or export import, you know, they wanted that product. And because South Vietnam was a French province.
you know our french um territory i guess so they backed up the north to take over you know and then america steps in to back up the french you know and then all hell breaks loose and you know and you know they and and you know politically they say this and this and that but technically i mean
isn't it funny it's funny like all these wars that are going on these micro wars these you know proxy wars that are going like like it's they've been going on forever they're never going to stop they're always going to be going on it's just never you know there is no like world war one was like the war to end all wars it was the last you know war it was going to stop bro like 25 years later they're fighting again they're fighting another war here that another one like it's
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Chapter 5: How did Da Panda's experiences in prison shape him?
That's the problem is that Americans were stuck with rules of engagement. Right. Right. And okay. For example, like the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Right. Everybody's heard of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was how the North got their supplies into the South. Right. And the U.S. with new, I mean, with like napalm. And I mean, it was all things about this Ho Chi Minh Trail.
But if you look at the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the Ho Chi Minh Trail actually goes into Cambodia. goes into Laos because North Vietnam didn't give a fuck about these invisible lines that like, you know, and if you actually looked at the supplies, they're literally in plain sight.
but it's in cambodia so the u.s can't go in there and blow up that supply depot you're fighting with rule you're fighting you're constraining yourself with rules and the other party doesn't have any doesn't have you're not gonna lose well i mean and and it's always been known that ho chi minh was a big fan of like uh the art the art of war you know he was a real big studier of the art war and he understood his enemy i mean even do you know what the art of war is
Sinsu. Sinsu, man. Whether he was a real Japanese... Japanese? Chinese. Chinese general. I've seen things that they think... Some of them think he was real. Some think it's a combination of a couple different people. And he wrote the book called The Art of War, which honestly, to this day, they use. They still use. It's got these really simple principles.
Like you've heard divide and conquer. Divide and conquer is...
If you're a large... What is it? If you're equally matched, fight. If you're not equally matched, evade. If you're larger than your enemy, fight. He's got all these rules. If you're small, be nimble. If you're large, be... He's all these different rules for the art of war. And people use it in business.
And he actually looks at it like a chess set, like a chess board, right? I mean, you do have sacrificial pawns. That kid holding that eight stick of dynamite is a sacrificial pawn to him. You know what I mean? It's just a weapon to use to destroy this tank, right? Now, and they understood propaganda.
Like, you know, during Vietnam, they would broadcast, the North would broadcast on a radio for black soldiers saying, this is not your war. We're not here to fight you. Look at the people. They're putting you guys on the front lines. They don't care about your life.
They're trying to separate. They know there's a problem there. Separate them.
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Chapter 6: What led to the tragic outcome at TGI Fridays?
Still out there doing all that stuff. And then what happened, which leads into my second time I get incarcerated. So... my gang or my crew where they were going down to Florida for the weekend to party or whatever. And three of us couldn't go. And one reason I couldn't go is because I was still under probation off the other stuff.
So like, I think four of us stayed behind and they told us like, look, hey, don't go to the clubs. Don't go out. You guys are only a few of you guys here. You know what I mean? But Back then, I felt like I was invisible. And if you're telling me not to go somewhere, it means I'm scared and I'm not gonna be scared to go out. You know what I mean?
And back then in Atlanta, the Asian culture wasn't like as fused as it is now. Like now when we go to the clubs, there's a mix of all kinds of races in the area. White people, black people, Asian people, everything. But back then they used to have what were called Asian parties. So people would rent out a venue and throw a party just for Asian people.
Right.
So but this is where the gangs would converge. right so then i remember we went to club soul was down in midtown atlanta and it was just four of us you know and we went in and there was an altercation within within the club right and you know we threw down in the club uh got out and got went to the car and as we were driving away who's the altercation with
A rival gang. Okay. Yeah, it was a rival gang. And it's not you in the alter case. It's somebody else within your gang.
Well, with one of us is all of us.
Right.
Right. So one of us got into a fight in there. So we all, we got into a fight within the club. Right. And then after that, you know, got kicked out. So we got to the car and as we were leaving, there were like four of them on the side of the sidewalk, I guess, going to their cars. You know, and at that point I stuck my nine millimeter out the window and I let go the entire mag. Right.
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Chapter 7: What consequences did Da Panda face after the shooting?
They ended up having to bound my case over to Superior Court because they couldn't handle it in the city because it was such a bigger... It's a more serious crime, yeah. So this is when I go to Fulton County Jail, right? Now, Fulton County Jail, everybody knows it as Rice Street, right? Now, Rice Street, it was probably the toughest time I had to spend because Rice Street had...
seven floors have you heard of spry street before yeah i have been in acdc like these are rough places right because you're doing you're dealing with these are like the ghettos like in atlanta you're talking everybody in there is always it's not even about what gang you're from it's like where you're from i'm from fourth ward boulevard mechanicsville uh perry home carver homes these are all projects you know mechanicsville is where ti came from
So in there, they were repping where their neighborhood was. But either way, all those neighborhoods didn't have Asian people in it. You know what I mean? And plus, I'm kind of outside because my hood is more College Park. So I'm in Clayton County is where my hood is. So I'm not even in my neighborhood. my stomping ground, I guess you would say.
So Rice Street at that time, I think they've changed it now, but back then Rice Street had seven floors. So the top floor was like the hole, right? The sixth floor was where your PC or like, I guess at the time, transgender people, stuff that people needed protection would go to. And then the fifth floor was like the Thunderdome. The fifth floor was the violent crime floor.
And then it worked its way on down, you know? And you're there for attempted murder. I'm there for attempted murder. So I am on the fifth floor and I'm in, I'm telling you, I'm crazy as shit. Like I'm literally sitting here watching the news and on the news, it was, I remember it was the DD.
And there was this couple, this guy and a girl who like killed some girl, some lady and chopped off her head and they found the body. Could never find the head. Right. And I'm watching this on the news. The door pops open and fucking Didi walks in. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just like, wow.
Now, the thing is, you know, like I said, Asians were looked at as by black people as victims, you know. So I probably got into more altercations in the time that I spent on that fifth floor of Rice Street. Then I have my entire life as a gangbanger in the years I spent in prison afterwards. You know what I mean? Like that kind of is really where I learned how to fight.
Cause I was constantly having to prove myself. I could remember like the first week in there, I went to a store call, right? So the officers at the door of handing out store, I make a $50 store call. I'm walking back to my room with my, my bag. And, uh, his name was Jones, big tall guy, came up to me and was like, hey, let me get that. And I was like, oh, you're hungry? You want a honey bun?
I'm still a little green around the ears, you know? I put my bag down and he's like, no, I want that whole thing. Now, my whole thing is I got to do it. It's like this. Don't think if you think you're going to talk yourself out of it. Right. I don't think I just react. So I punch him right in the face. You know what I mean? His buddy kicks me in the back. I go into the fetal position.
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Chapter 8: How did Da Panda cope with the pressures of gang life?
Right.
You know what I mean? So what?
I, you know, been there, done that. You know, now when I go to, if I have one, I'd rather much rather do prison time than county time.
Cause county fucking sucks. The guys, the whole time you're in county, you're like, I, there were guys that I kept hearing him say, man, I just want to get sentenced to go to prison. And it was like, and I was like, I always thought, well, prison's worse than this. Right. And they were like, fuck no. Prison's way better than county prison. Fuck yeah. County sucks.
I remember a guy was like, he said, you understand that I'll get there in the morning that night. I'll be eating ice cream. I mean, he was, I'm going to, they're going to count me. I'm going to go walk the track for about an hour or two. I might play handball that night. I'll have somebody get me an ice cream. I'll be taking a hot shower. And you're sitting there going.
Like, I want to get sentenced. Like, I want to go to prison.
No, because, you know, you're watching these movies. And, you know, of course, I myself, not to say that I wasn't, like, nervous about going to prison. You know what I mean? Obviously, I was. You know what I mean? But once you've been down there and you understand and, like,
i was a rowdy kid i was never scared to throw down so like once you know that like you can earn that respect yeah the freedom's down in prison so much more like you literally get out in the morning you're out all day watching tv gambling you don't have to play basketball very little interaction with the police yeah very little interaction with anything so it's kind of like you're you're you're kind of left on your own to kind of do do do your time
you know whereas in county they're so like strict and it's all about control and you know literally in gwinnett county like you literally only got four hours outside of your room a day so it's 20 hour lockdown you know what i mean like fuck that shit i much rather go out here like send me to gen pop you know what i mean because i much rather have the freedom and not And so what?
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