Westminster : Youth Held in Shooting at Graduation Dance

A 17-year-old youth was arrested Wednesday in connection with a shooting last week in which several youths tried to crash a graduation dance at Russell I. Johnson Junior High School.

Westminster Police Officer Tom Broderson said the youth was arrested Wednesday morning at the police station, where he had been called in for questioning. Because he is a juvenile, Broderson said, his name would not be released.

The youth was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and was to be taken to Juvenile Hall, Broderson said.

Andy Thanh Pham, 16, who told police he was attending his brother’s eighth-grade graduation, was shot as he was chased by the youths, suspected to be gang members, in the school parking lot as the school dance was in progress last Thursday. He was treated at Humana Hospital-Westminster and released.

The five youths left in two cars, and Broderson said one of the cars was spotted in the parking lot of Bolsa Grande High School a few days later.

“It led to our one subject in custody, and possibly another one, but he is not yet in custody,” Broderson said.

“We’re still trying to figure out his connection with the victim,” he said of the youth in custody. “Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity.”

He said he did not know if the 17-year-old was a student at Bolsa Grande High School.