8 Charged With Running Out on the Tab

Five teen-agers and three adults were facing misdemeanor charges Friday after being captured by a rifle-wielding former Saigon policeman while allegedly trying to skip out on a $94 tab at a Vietnamese restaurant in Westminster.

The suspects, who were charged with defrauding an innkeeper, were among 19 teen-agers who refused to pay for a meal at the Pho 86 restaurant at about 3 p.m. Thursday, police said. Two of the suspects allegedly brandished pistols inside the Brookhurst Street cafe before the group ran into a parking lot and tried to flee in three cars.

But the restaurant owner’s brother, 43-year-old Tu Van Nguyen, fired two or three shots into the air from a semiautomatic rifle and detained eight of the suspects at gunpoint until officers arrived moments later.

Eleven suspects managed to flee in the cars.

Officer Larry Woessner, spokesman for the Westminster Police Department, said no one was injured by the gunfire.

Nguyen’s rifle--the equivalent of a military M-16--was taken from him, Woessner said, and the Orange County district attorney’s office will investigate to determine whether Nguyen was justified in firing his gun.

Tai Huu Le, 19, Ly Khac Cu, 18, and Outh Bounevongsay, 18, all of Santa Ana, were charged in West Orange County Municipal Court with defrauding an innkeeper.

The juveniles--two 14-year-old Anaheim girls, a 16-year-old Santa Ana girl, and two boys, 16 and 17--were charged in Orange County Superior Court with the same offense.

The adults were arrested at the scene on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery and booked at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail each. The juveniles were taken to Orange County Juvenile Hall, police said.

Woessner said that, although a revolver was found in the trunk of a car impounded near the restaurant Thursday, only misdemeanor charges were filed because investigators could not immediately determine which of the suspects may have brandished weapons.