Van in Boston Linked to Student’s Slaying : Crime: Police arrest two youths in vehicle believed the one used in Garden Grove killing.

An Orange County man and a juvenile were arrested in Boston Thursday in a van police say was involved in the shocking murder last week of a UCI engineering student gunned down in Garden Grove as he attempted to get the van’s license number, police said.

Robert Sapinoso, 19, of Westminster was shot Aug. 17 as he and a friend followed a van he believed had been involved in neighborhood vandalism. He was hit several time in the upper body, then driven to a local hospital that did not have emergency facilities. He died before paramedics arrived.

“The van has been located in Boston,” said Garden Grove police Capt. Dave Abrecht. “We’re sending four investigators back there tonight to pick up the trail.”

Garden Grove police Lt. John Woods said police stopped the van about 6 p.m. after a 10-minute chase. About four people were in the van, he said, but only two were held. They were a 17-year-old from Orange, who was arrested on a probation violation, and Vinh Quoc Ta, 18, of Santa Ana, arrested on a burglary warrant.

Boston police, like those in several other locations, had been advised by Garden Grove police to be on the lookout for the van.

“That is one of the places where we thought they might turn up,” Abrecht said.

Dan Sapinoso, Robert’s father, said he was “overwhelmed, overjoyed” to learn of the arrests.

“I just want justice to be done because we believe in justice in this country. . . . We are just happy that justice is being done.”

Sapinoso’s friend who was with him when the attack occurred, said he was “glad for Robert’s parents. We wanted justice to be done.”

Since the slaying, the friend said, “we’ve been doing a lot of praying here. We’re a very religious family. I had really good faith that they were going to catch them. I’m totally relieved. The police did their job. They don’t want it to happen again, and I don’t want it happen again, and no one wants it to happen again.”

However, he said, he was convinced those involved in the killing were part of a gang, so he was still “scared of the (gang members) coming back. It is a gang, so . . . I’m always going to have in my mind a worst-case scenario. . . . I’m going to have to watch out. The police are coming by here a lot. That’s made my family feel better.”

Sapinoso, an engineering student, had been working at the friend’s house on their cars about 6:45 p.m. that day when they saw a passing silver Toyota van that matched the description of one used by vandals there the previous weekend. They got into Sapinoso’s Honda CRX to follow it.

They had written all but one digit of the license plate when the van pulled over at Newland Street and Trask Avenue, and a passenger walked toward them and opened fire, the friend said.

He rushed Sapinoso to nearby Vencor Hospital-Orange County, which has no emergency facilities. Sapinoso died as they waited for help to arrive.

The friend told police the shooter was Vietnamese, between the 17 to 21 years of age, with “thick, black, unruly” hair.

Police on Thursday released a composite sketch of the gunman.

Times staff writer David Reyes contributed to this report.