Cafe Shooting Kills Man in Westminster : Violence: Another man is wounded there by an off-duty security guard. Police plan stepped-up patrols in Little Saigon to stem late-night attacks.

In the second fatal shooting inside a cafe here in six days, one man was killed and another was injured when an off-duty security guard drew a handgun and fired four shots in self-defense as he was attacked with a tire iron, police said.

The 23-year-old security guard surrendered to police shortly after the 3 a.m. shooting in Little Saigon, which occurred at the Pho Tien Canh Restaurant at 9631 Bolsa Avenue. “He was having coffee, and another group of people who apparently knew him were there,” Lt. Rick Main said. “When he tried to leave, they wouldn’t let him leave. He said they attacked him and he felt fearful for his life.”

The security guard, a resident of Los Angeles County, was not arrested and is not expected to face criminal charges, Main said. The man turned over a large-caliber handgun used in the shooting to police. Investigators were withholding the guard’s name for his own protection.

Police said the cafe was crowded with people at the time of the shooting and that many witnesses corroborated the guard’s version of events.

When police arrived at the restaurant, there was evidence of a shooting, but the guard and other participants disappeared. Within 10 minutes, two area hospitals reported to police that gunshot victims had been brought to their emergency rooms.

Kinh Van Chu, 37, of Garden Grove died from his injuries shortly after being taken to Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana. Tu Tran, 21, of Garden Grove was in stable condition Saturday at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

Police said Tran could be charged with murder, Main said. Under the felony-murder rule, a suspect can be charged with murder when someone is killed during the commission of certain felonies, even if they did not fire the fatal shot.

The guard, fearing for his safety, had fled the cafe, but called police about 20 minutes later.

The guard had been employed at a nightclub in the Little Saigon area in the past and may have worked at the cafe where the shooting occurred when it was under different ownership, Lt. Andrew Hall said.

The restaurant, which recently changed ownership, has been the site of several violent attacks in recent years.

“It’s an address we all know,” Hall said. “Under its former owners, it presented us with a real history of problems.”

When it was known as the Tan-Hai Restaurant, the eatery was the site of several violent gang-related attacks, including a melee in 1991 when 17 people were arrested on suspicion of rioting.

That same year, a 21-year-old man was fatally shot in the parking lot. Last year, there was a brawl between two groups of teen-agers that erupted in gunfire, forcing customers to the floor. A 15-year-old girl was wounded in the cross-fire.

The cafe was closed Saturday afternoon and employees refused to comment on the shootings.

Several customers who arrived for lunch were turned away while others appeared stunned as they looked at the splattered blood that remained on the sidewalk.

Kenny Dang, 29, was shopping Saturday afternoon in the small strip mall that houses the cafe. The Anaheim Hills resident, who visits Little Saigon weekly, said the previous violence at the cafe caused him to quit eating there.

“I hear they have had shootings at that place,” Dang said. “People go there late in the evening to hang out. One thing leads to another.”

Saturday’s shooting has caused concern among city officials and leaders in the Vietnamese community, especially since it comes on the heels of a March 28 attack in which two gunmen strode into a crowded cafe in the 7900 block of Westminster Boulevard and opened fire, killing a 20-year-old Garden Grove man and wounding a 16-year-old boy and two women, both 19.

Investigators said they did not know whether that attack or Saturday’s shootings were gang-related.

Police said that, as a preventive measure, there will be increased police patrols of cafes and bars in the area in the next few weeks.

Mai Cong, president of the nonprofit Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., called the recent shootings “deplorable and regrettable.”

“These incidents cost lives, and no one wants that,” Cong said. “I don’t know what we are going to do about this. I know that nightclubs have screening for guns, but I don’t know if this is feasible for cafes. And I don’t know if closing earlier is feasible to the owners, since they cater to a certain clientele who want a late-night supper after going to the movies or a nightclub.”