Foiled Robbery at Body Shop Leaves 1 Dead, 1 Jailed

A 32-year-old Garden Grove man shot and killed a suspected robber who was threatening his father-in-law at gunpoint during a foiled heist at an auto body shop, investigators said Friday.

The son-in-law, Joey Dong, then held his gun on another robbery suspect inside the shop’s office until sheriff’s deputies arrived Thursday evening. At least two other gunmen fled, workers at nearby businesses said.

The confrontation at the small body shop in the 1500 block of Jackson Street kept the owner, his family and a handful of employees shuttered at home Friday.

“Right now I’m very shaky and confused. I’m still nervous,” said the owner’s son, who works at the business and spoke on the condition that his name be withheld. “It’s pretty bad just to know that someone’s dead and one person got caught. A couple are on the loose.”

Sheriff’s officials and family members said John Uong Do, 46, was working at the T&D; Auto Body Shop when two men came in and talked to him about getting some auto body work done. They returned less than an hour later, at 5:45 p.m., held a gun to his head and demanded money.

Dong, the son-in-law, was in the kitchen area of the shop when the assailants pulled a gun on Do. Dong managed to distract the men long enough for Do to knock the weapon out of the gunman’s hand, Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson said.

Dong then grabbed a handgun stored nearby, firing four shots into the suspect’s chest. The man, who investigators said was in his late teens or early 20s, staggered outside and died in the shop’s doorway.

One of the men held a gun on the other suspect, 29-year-old Dung Anh Le, of Anaheim, until authorities arrived. Le was booked into Orange County Jail on a charge of armed robbery and is being held on $250,000 bail, Wilkerson said.

Investigators did not cite anyone in connection with the shooting and were still working Friday to unravel exactly what happened.

“We don’t know where [the investigation] is going to end up,” Wilkerson said. “Now it looks like a robbery attempt.”

Wilkerson said auto body shops are unusual targets for robbery because they don’t tend to carry much cash.

Employees at neighboring businesses on the industrial Jackson Street strip wondered aloud at the circumstances of the shooting.

Ken Nguyen, 36, was working at a auto body shop behind T&D; when the shooting occurred. He said he didn’t hear anything until he saw several armed men--apparently accomplices--running down the alley after the shooting. “Everybody had a gun,” he said.

Jay Koontz, 28, was getting ready to clock out at the U.S. Post Office across the street when he heard four pops of gunfire. At first he thought the noises were cars backfiring, but then he heard the gunfire as two of the men fled south on Jackson Street in a black van.

He said he ran across the street into the auto body shop and saw the suspect being held at gunpoint. Do and his son-in-law were so shaken that they asked Koontz to dial 911 for them, he said.

Another neighbor said the assailants arrived in two cars.

The neighborhood has been the site of drug deals, and gunshots are common at night at nearby apartments, Koontz said. But U.S. postal worker Connie Billings, who heard Thursday’s gunshots, said the violence has never been so close.

“That’s as close to gunshots as I want to get,” she said.