Teen Shot in Street While Confronting Carload of Gunmen

A Garden Grove man was recovering Saturday after being shot in the chest Friday night during a confrontation with a carload of gunmen believed to be gang members, police said.

Ky Van Nguyen, 19, was shot just before 8 p.m. on Magnolia Street, just south of Westminster Avenue, after getting out of his car at a red light to talk to four males in a car stopped behind him, said Lt. Andrew Hall of the Westminster Police Department.

After a brief argument, at least two of the four males in the car opened fire on Nguyen with small-caliber handguns, hitting him in the chest, Hall said.

The assailants fled north and abandoned their brown 1985 Buick on Trask Avenue, just east of Magnolia. Two of them were captured near the abandoned car and two handguns were recovered, Hall said. Two others escaped.

The suspects--Lap Tien Nguyen (who is not related to the victim), 21, of Garden Grove and a 16-year-old Garden Grove youth who was not identified because he is a juvenile--were being held on suspicion of attempted murder, Hall said. Both are considered gang members.

Hall said investigators do not know what led to the shooting. Neither the victim nor the suspects were cooperating with police, he said.

“It might have been the way they were looking at each other. It might have been a traffic thing,” Hall said. “We don’t know of any history between these people.”

The victim was listed in good condition Saturday at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange. The wounds are not considered life threatening, Hall said.

“He was lucky. He was hit in the chest, but none of his vital organs were damaged,” Hall said.