WEEK IN REVIEW : Major Events, Images And People in Orange County News : AT THE SCENE : Police Say Student Confessed to Shooting
Westminster police say they have a confession from Be Tu Van Tran, a 30-year-old Costa Mesa truck driver and student, that he was the man who strode up to a former Vietnamese housing official and shot him in the shoulder and stomach.
Tran explained that he was “upset” about statements he thought were pro-Hanoi which the former official had made in a magazine article, police said. He told investigators his father and brother had gone “crazy” after being imprisoned in Saigon after the Communist takeover in 1975.
The shooting victim, Tran Khanh Van, 44, of Westminster, recovered sufficiently to be released from a hospital. The next day, Tran pleaded not guilty in court.
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