Merchant Arrested After Body Found in Store

A video store owner has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his girlfriend, whose body was found by police behind a counter in the store Saturday night.

Acting on information supplied by Kevin Tran, 23, police went to his Video 2001 store at 19461 Brookhurst St. and discovered the body of Kim Anh Ngo, 23, of Westminster.

Tran came to the police station at 9:30 p.m. while eating a hamburger and told police that he had killed Ngo earlier in the evening, Lt. Luis Ochoa said.

“He walked into the front lobby of the police station and told his story, revealing where the body of his slain girlfriend could be found and gave the (store) keys to the officer sitting behind the lobby desk,” Ochoa said. He is in custody in the Huntington Beach jail.

Police said Ngo apparently died of a gunshot wound, but they declined to provide details. A handgun was lying near her body.

Huntington Beach resident Cheri Estrada, who is a regular customer of the store, described Tran as a very calm person who was able to contend with “overactive kids” and treated all of his customers warmly.

She said Ngo, who sometimes worked at the store, had a temper and described a fight she had heard between the couple at the store last month.

“I have a hard time thinking he just picked up a gun and shot her in cold blood. I can see her just picking up a gun, but not Tran,” Estrada said. “About him just walking into a police station with a hamburger and saying he had shot her, it’s just like Tran. He would never run away.”

Another customer, Patti Dehen, who works a few doors away from the video store, said she met Tran almost two years ago and was also an acquaintance of Ngo. “He is so calm all of the time,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe he would do anything like this. I still can’t believe it.”

Times staff writer Greg Hernandez contributed to this story.