Gunfire Seriously Injures 2 in Convenience Store

Two reputed gang members were shot through a plate-glass window and seriously wounded while playing video games in a convenience store early Sunday morning, police said.

The young men were apparently shot at 2:10 a.m. from a car passing by the Circle K market on the 4500 block of Beach Boulevard, said Sgt. Charlie Russell of the Buena Park police. The assailants remained at large Sunday.

One of the victims told police after the shooting that possibly two or more of the gunmen drove away in a dark-colored, mid-size car, Russell said.

Norwalk resident Lee Candelaria, 20, was taken to one hospital where he was listed in critical condition with .38-caliber bullet wounds to the chest and right arm.

The other victim, 20-year-old Vadhana B. Dinn of La Mirada, was taken by helicopter to a different hospital and was in serious but guarded condition with a bullet wound to the neck, a hospital official said.

While waiting for an ambulance at the scene of the shooting, one of the wounded men told police that they were affiliated with gangs but were not involved in any squabbles with anyone in Buena Park, Russell said.

“You know how that goes. Some people don’t need an excuse to start trouble,” Russell said.

Police investigators suspect that there were two or more suspects because the bullets left different size holes in the store window, Russell said. “We believe one of the weapons was a .38 special and the other was a .380,” he said.

Russell said that there were no witnesses to the shooting and that the caretaker of the 24-hour store did not see the attack because he was busy restocking merchandise in the back room.

One of the cashiers at the convenience store, who did not want to be identified, said in an interview that there have not been any recent shootings at the store before this but that the attack has unnerved him and his fellow workers.