Bystander Hit by Gunshot at Tet Festival

An bystander was shot in the foot as violence flared briefly Sunday night between rival Indochinese gangs at the Vietnamese community’s fourth annual Tet Festival in Santa Ana’s Centennial Regional Park, police said.

The victim, whose name was not immediately available, was treated at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital after the 7:30 p.m. incident. Santa Ana police late Sunday were still searching for suspects.

The shooting occurred on the second and final day of the celebration of Tet, the lunar new year. Few in the crowd, estimated at about 15,000, knew that a shooting had occurred because the sound of the gun blended with the sharp report of hundreds of fireworks being set off at the same time, police said.

The victim, a Christian evangelist who a fellow church member said was proselytizing at the festival, was standing with several hundred other people in an open-air bingo parlor near the front entrance of the festival when two members of apparent rival gangs began arguing, Santa Ana Police Cpl. William Heim said.

One of the youths produced a small-caliber handgun and fired a shot at the other youth but missed, and the evangelist was hit in the foot, Heim said. The suspect ran out the front entrance accompanied by several other youths, Heim said.

One of the two mounted Santa Ana policemen on patrol outside the festival contacted Heim inside the festival grounds when he saw some people running out the front entrance. Heim and three other officers inside the grounds checked and discovered the gunshot victim lying on the ground. Santa Ana Fire Department paramedics were called to the scene, and police ordered the festival organizers to close down an hour early at 8 p.m.

Heim said this was the first outbreak of violence in the local history of the Tet Festival, which is sponsored by Vietnamese organizations.

“It’s a family-oriented festivity. No alcohol. No problems,” Heim said.

Rocco Marchetti, a stage manager in the park for the City of Santa Ana, said the Tet Festival is among the least violent of the various celebrations that are held in Centennial Regional Park.

“Everybody always behaves beautifully, without a doubt,” Marchetti said. “They are fine, fine folks to work with.”

Tung Le, coordinator of the festival, said he would not allow this incident to detract from future Tet events in the park.

“We feel very sorry about that, but we try to control the area very good,” Le said. “You cannot prevent something like this, because you cannot prevent people from joining the festival.”

Le said the only previous problems the Tet Festival had experienced involved a few fistfights between gang members on festival grounds and some gang members attempting to gain entry without paying admission. Both problems, he added, were swiftly dealt with by the festival’s ample security.