3 Wounded in Shooting at Vietnamese Cafe : Violence: Attack by three gunmen who fire into a Garden Grove restaurant is third such incident in county in just over a week.

A third shooting in just over a week at Vietnamese cafes left one person critically wounded Monday and two others hospitalized.

About 7 p.m., three men with handguns approached the Cafe Truc Mai in the 10500 block of Westminster Avenue, Sgt. Jack Ray said. One gunman ordered a customer inside to step outside. When he did, a short argument followed, witnesses told police.

The three men with guns then began shooting into the restaurant, and customers may have returned fire, Ray said. The gunmen ran. Police found 12 shell casings in the area and numerous bullet holes in the cafe’s windows.

Police said a man was critically wounded in the head. Another man was shot in the foot, and a woman was shot in the hand. All were hospitalized.

Police had not released the names of the victims.

As investigators searched the dimly lit cafe with flashlights, three customers who appeared to be in their late teens sat in front of the cafe waiting for police to interview them. Nine people, including the manager, were in the cafe when the shooting began, Ray said. All were questioned.

The owner of the Van Restaurant next door, which had not yet opened, said his cooks were preparing food when they heard popping sounds.

“We thought it was firecrackers,” said the owner, who did not want to give his name. The Cafe Truc Mai, he added, is not a trouble spot.

“This is the first shooting there,” he said.

Police said they did not know if the shooting was gang-related, and that both the customers and management were hesitant and fearful of providing information.

A neighborhood resident, who did not give his name, said gunfire is normally heard only on weekends but has increased over the past several years. “It’s just getting worse and worse around here,” he said.

The gunmen were described as age 20 to 25.

On Saturday, an off-duty security guard from Los Angeles shot and killed one man and wounded another in apparent self-defense after he was assaulted by a group of people in a crowded cafe in the 9600 block of Bolsa Avenue in Westminster. Police said the cafe, Pho Tien Canh, had a history of disorderly conduct.

Kinh Van Chu, 37, of Garden Grove died of his injuries.

The security guard, who called police after the shooting, was not held or cited.

On March 27, two men walked into another crowded Vietnamese restaurant, the Cafe Mozart in Westminster, just before midnight, shot Le Quan Nguyen, 20, of Garden Grove to death and wounded three other people.

No arrests have been made in what police said was a gang-related incident.

On Oct. 20, 1993, a shooting at the Gai Hoi Cafe in Fountain Valley, across the street from Westminster, left one man dead and two others wounded. Police arrested a 27-year-old Garden Grove man.

Ray could not explain why there had been such a rash of shootings at cafes.

Times staff writer Thuan Le contributed to this story.