Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS. : AT THE SCENE : Mother of 12 Becomes Latest Victim of Vietnamese Gangs

Tragedy struck a Vietnamese refugee family when a band of masked gunmen forced their way into a Santa Ana home demanding money.

The marauders held 13 family members at bay in the living room, and shot 46-year-old Huyen Thi Hoang to death as she prayed at her bedside in a back room.

Santa Ana police said the attack was part of a growing wave of residential robberies involving Vietnamese teen-agers who prey on their fellow refugees.

Vietnamese families are easy targets because they tend to keep large amounts of cash and valuables around the house, and they are often reluctant--or fearful--to report such incidents to the authorities, police said.

The loosely organized gangs--which have committed dozens of violent robberies at homes in Orange County over the past few years--have connections in Vietnamese communities all over North America, authorities said. They are highly mobile and, hence, difficult to track, according to police. Representatives of law enforcement agencies from throughout the nation will gather in Westminster later this month to discuss the problem.

Huyen Thi Hoang was probably shot because she was startled by the gunman who entered her room, or perhaps because the young man’s mask slipped and he feared recognition, Santa Ana Police Sgt. John McClain suggested.

“I can’t understand why they picked this family,” said Michael Tran, a friend of the family. “This is a terrible thing to happen, especially in our community. They have 12 children.”