2 Killed, 2 Injured in 3 Drive-By Shootings : Crime: Attacks in Westminster, Santa Ana and La Habra appear unrelated. In one, the assailants made a U-turn to resume firing.

Three apparently unrelated drive-by shootings left a teen-age boy and a man dead and two other people wounded as investigators searched for witnesses to the unsolved crimes.

The attacks occurred late Thursday in Westminster, Santa Ana and La Habra.

In the boldest of the three shootings, the occupants of a compact sedan opened fire as they passed a carload of young people about 9:30 p.m. at a busy Beach Boulevard intersection, Westminster Police Sgt. Mike Mittelstaedt said.

“The suspects then made a U-turn at Bolsa [Avenue] and again shot at the victims, who had pulled over on the side of road,” Mittelstaedt said.

Khanh Trong Nguyen, 23, of Garden Grove was taken to UCI Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the left side of his head, investigators said. He died Friday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Nguyen was sitting in the back seat of a green four-door sedan driven by a 17-year-old girl, who suffered a gunshot wound to her left arm. The girl, whose name was not released by police, was treated at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. Two other passengers, ages 17 and 20, were not injured, Mittelstaedt said.

Nguyen and three friends were on their way to Huntington Beach and had made a turn from Hazard Avenue onto a southbound lane of Beach Boulevard when the assailants approached from behind, police said.

Investigators did not know whether the victims were followed before the shooting. A witness had told police he thought the attackers appeared to have been speeding in an effort to catch up with the green sedan.

Westminster investigators said none of the victims appeared to have gang ties. Police asked that anyone with information about the shooting call (714) 898-3315, Ext. 336.

Less than 15 minutes earlier in Santa Ana, a 16-year-old boy was fatally gunned down in a drive-by shooting a block from his home, Police Cpl. H. Mariani said.

Richard Ortiz was shot in the stomach and taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he died an hour later, police said. Shellings at the scene indicate the attacker used a rifle, Mariani said.

Ortiz and a friend had been crossing McFadden Avenue heading south on Newhope Street when the assailant fired several shots, investigators said. The friend was not injured. Mariani said both youths have ties to local gangs.

Almost three hours later, a 20-year-old man who was standing on a La Habra sidewalk talking with friends was shot by someone in a car in the 300 block of Grace Avenue, police said.

Antonio Negrete, 20, of La Habra was hit in the stomach and taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he was in stable condition Friday. La Habra police said the midnight shooting appears to have been gang-related.

Authorities in the three cities said they did not believe the attacks were related but are not ruling out that possibility as the investigations continue.