Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : AT THE SCENE : Ex-Saigon Officer Prevents Escape of 8 Suspects Who Didn’t Pay for Meal

Former Saigon police officer Tu Van Nguyen wasn’t about to let the teen-agers get away without paying for their meal.

Nguyen, 43, fired two or three shots into the air from his semiautomatic rifle and detained eight of 19 youths who allegedly refused to pay a $94 tab at Pho 86, a Vietnamese restaurant in Westminster. Eleven suspects fled in three cars, but eight others--three adults and five minors--were detained by Nguyen. No one was injured.

Nguyen, who owns a Santa Ana restaurant, had only stopped in to visit at Pho 86, owned by his sister, Quoc, and her husband, Tay Nguyen.

Speaking through an interpreter, Nguyen said he had heard from other Vietnamese restaurant owners that a large group of Asian teen-agers were skipping out on their meal tabs. He said he decided to capture this group after two of them allegedly brandished revolvers inside the Brookhurst Street cafe.

Misdemeanor charges of defrauding an innkeeper were filed in West Orange County Municipal Court against Tai Huu Le, 19, Ly Khac Cu, 18, and Outh Bounevongsay, 18, all of Santa Ana. The juveniles--two 14-year-old Anaheim girls, a 16-year-old Santa Ana girl, and two boys, 16 and 17--were similarly charged in Orange County Juvenile Hall, police said.

“We never like to see a citizen take up arms” said Westminster police officer Larry Woessner. “It didn’t appear that he was in any harm, but there was the fact that there were two guns pulled.”

The district attorney’s office will determine whether the shooting was justified, he said.