Ex-Wife, 2 Others Held in Fatal Shooting

A college student from Texas and two Orange County women have been arrested in the gunshot slaying of a father who was waiting to pick up his 3-year-old son at a Norco day-care center, authorities said.

Bryan Modglin, 26, who attends Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, was arrested Wednesday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Extradition proceedings to bring Modglin back to California were underway Thursday, authorities said.

Modglin was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and murder in the shooting of Paul Wong, 40, of Riverside. Wong was waiting in his car Tuesday outside a Norco day-care center.

Investigators believe Modglin is the cousin of Wong’s ex-wife, Kristy Lewis. The 37-year-old woman and her mother remain jailed in California.

Bail of $250,000 each was set for Lewis and her mother, Nona Lewis, 68, both of Orange. They also are being held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and murder, police said.

Police said a gunman drove up in a rented car and began firing a semiautomatic handgun at Wong through Wong’s driver’s side door. Wong was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he died Wednesday morning of multiple gunshot wounds. The gun was found at the crime scene.

Witnesses told deputies the gunman, dressed in black, drove from the parking lot of the Town & Country Pre-School in a white compact car, Riverside County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Lohman said.

No one else was wounded in the shooting. The son was picked up by another family member, Lohman said. The boy and his 8-year-old sister, who was not at the day-care center at the time, are now staying with friends of Wong’s family.

“The kids [at the day-care center] were inside, totally unaware of this going on outside,” Lohman said.