3 Men Invade Home; Beat Woman, Son : Crime: Gunmen flee in victims’ car after pistol-whipping Asian American matriarch. Attack matches others in the ethnic community, police said.

Three gunmen kicked and pistol-whipped a 61-year-old mother of five and beat her adult son during a home invasion here Friday, then fled in the family’s car, police said.

“They kept asking for money but no one had any. We didn’t have anything but a couple of bucks in our pockets,” said Kim Anh Lai, 23, the second-youngest in the family. “They took everything that they could. They even stole my watch from my room.”

The attack about 2 a.m. Friday in the 4400 block of West Oakfield Avenue, a predominantly Asian American area, was the latest in a string of home invasion cases targeting Asian immigrant families, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Bob Clark said.

More than 150 such attacks have been reported since 1991 in Santa Ana, Westminster and Garden Grove, officials said. Police said the perpetrators in such cases typically are members of the same immigrant community as their victims, who are targeted because they are newcomers here and are believed to keep money and valuables in their homes instead of in the bank.

The attack on the Lai family fit that pattern, police said. The invaders, described as three Asian males between the ages of 18 and 23, entered the house by kicking in the kitchen door, Clark said.

Lanh Nguyen had fallen asleep on the living room sofa, but woke up when she heard the glass shatter, her daughter said. The rest of the family came running when they heard her scream, Lai said.

By the time Lai and her siblings entered the room, she said, the three men had bound and gagged Nguyen with the family’s drapes, then pistol whipped and kicked her in the stomach and chest.

Nguyen’s son, Khanh Lai, said he tried to defend his mother, but one gunmen also beat him with his gun while another cut the phone lines.

Khanh Lai, an engineer, said he supports the household while his four siblings, ages 21 to 32, are attending college.

“I’m the only one in my family who works,” said Khanh Lai, 28. “We don’t have anything. I told them to take anything and to just leave us alone. But they kept demanding money. And when they couldn’t find enough money, they kept hitting me.”

Khanh Lai said the burglars took an estimated $200 in cash, about $1,000 in gold, a karaoke machine and other electronic goods before fleeing in his 1985 burgundy BMW.

He and his mother were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where they were treated for cuts and abrasions.

Khanh Lai said his family is shaken by the invasion and is now thinking about moving to another city. They moved to their Santa Ana home just three months ago from Garden Grove, he said.

“We moved here because it’s a safe neighborhood,” he said.

Times staff writer Yvette Cabrera contributed to this story.