Countywide : Public’s Help Sought in Finding Suspect

The Sheriff’s Department is asking for the public’s help in its still-active search for a suspect in a shooting almost two years ago at Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley that left one man dead and another wounded.

The department is asking the public to be on the lookout for Hoang Xuan Nguyen, 21, one of the suspected triggermen in the September, 1990, killing of 34-year-old Hoa Le and wounding of Ngoc Lee Phung.

“There were several, but he was the main triggerman,” said homicide investigator John Allen.

Nguyen is believed armed and dangerous.

Four of the five suspects in the shooting have been arrested. Minh Cong Do, 20, was convicted of first-degree murder and Chau Van Phung, 36, was convicted of attempted murder and first-degree murder. Both were sentenced to life in prison.

The other two suspects, Hoa Day Thai, 26, and Phong (Paul) Chuhang Phan, 20, are still in custody awaiting trial on similar charges.

Prosecutors have won the convictions on the “aid and abet” theory, which holds that people who are involved in violent crimes share the same punishment as those who actually pull the trigger.

Nguyen is described as 5-foot-5, 140 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. His last known address was in Anaheim. Police have received information that he has been in Texas, Orange County and Los Angeles since the shooting.

Anyone with information on him is asked to call Allen or Investigator Ed Berakovich at (714) 647-7055 on weekdays or (714) 647-7000 any time.