Three Charged in Freeway Shooting Death
Two men were charged Thursday with murder, and another as being an accessory, in connection with the fatal shooting Monday of a 21-year-old woman on the Garden Grove Freeway.
Prosecutors charged En Van Nguyen and Hung Nguyen, both 20, with the murder of Loan Tran. Vu Anh Ngo, 19, was charged as an accessory to the murder. All three were charged with weapons violations, a court clerk said.
The men were arrested Tuesday, but their names were not made public until they were charged Thursday.
Tran was fatally shot about 3 a.m. Monday while riding in the back of a green Acura Legend.
She and friends had just eaten at a Garden Grove cafe and were heading west on the Garden Grove Freeway to Long Beach. A dark car pulled alongside them, and about three shots hit the Acura.
One of the bullets struck Tran in the head; she died several hours later at UCI Medical Center in Orange. Four others in the car were uninjured.
Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Kevin Raney said the shooting was not gang-related, but it wasn’t random either.
“It is our belief that the people that were charged intended to kill this victim,” Raney said.
He declined to elaborate on a motive for the shooting.
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