Gunman Kills 2, Injures 4 in Garden Grove : Crime: The shooter flees with an accomplice after opening fire at an auto accessories store, hitting the owner and customers. Police do not know the motive.

A gunman opened fire at a family-owned auto accessories store in Garden Grove on Monday afternoon, killing two and injuring four others before he casually tucked his handgun into his pants, climbed into a gray minivan and sped away with a waiting driver.

Police and paramedics found one body inside the store, Robotek, and another man shot to death in the front seat of his Honda Accord in the mini-mall’s parking lot at 13120 Brookhurst St. Calls to 911 began pouring in just after 1:14 p.m.

“I heard seven to eight shots as I was approaching the shopping center,” said an 18-year-old witness, who was riding his bike by the store. “I saw a guy stick something in front of his pants and walk slowly away.”

Three critically wounded victims were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, including two teenagers and the owner of Robotek, 48-year-old Charlie Kim, who had been shot five times. All were listed in critical condition Monday afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Kim Pine said. A fourth victim, 15, who was visiting the store with his 18-year-old brother, was taken to Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the foot and was later released.

Paramedics arrived on the scene minutes after the shooting stopped and made a futile attempt to revive a man family members said was Tony Ngo, pulling his lifeless body out of the bullet-ridden Honda and onto the parking lot to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Monday was Ngo’s 18th birthday. The Bolsa Grande High School graduate lived with his family in Fountain Valley and was preparing to leave home for his freshman year at UC Davis.

Ngo’s close friend Han Vo of Fountain Valley also was inside the Honda when the gunman began pumping bullets through the windshield, his friends and relatives said. A bullet pierced Vo’s neck and grazed his hand, but the 17-year-old is expected to survive.

Police have not released the identity of the person killed inside the store.

Police Unsure of Motive

The motive for the bloody rampage was unclear, but detectives were checking possibilities that one of the assailants could have been a disgruntled customer or employee, said Sgt. Dennis Ellsworth of the Garden Grove Police Department. A third man was seen fleeing the area on foot, but police said he might have been a frightened bystander.

“We don’t know if it’s gang related or a random act of violence,” Ellsworth said. “We just don’t know.”

Police were reluctant to release details of the shooting. Ellsworth said a handgun was used in the shootings but declined to reveal the caliber. No one who was inside Robotek recognized the gunman.

Two spectators who described themselves as former Robotek employees identified the owner as Kim, who opened the shop with his wife in 1995.

Robotek draws a steady crowd of young customers from the ethnically diverse Garden Grove community. The store specializes in lowering cars and trucks and outfitting them with chrome wheel rims and other flashy accessories.

Witnesses told police the gunman was an Asian man in his 20s, wearing a dark shirt, jeans and a dark baseball cap.

The gunman and the driver were last seen headed east on Larson Avenue and north on Flower Street, witnesses and police said. Police said they were driving a 1990 to 1994 gray Mazda MPV minivan with tinted windows.

Kevin Lee was across the street from the storefront auto-parts store when he heard the “pop pop pop” of a handgun. Lee saw a mechanic cowering behind a wall near Robotek’s auto bay.

“He was hiding,” said Lee, owner of Kevin’s Auto Center across Larson Avenue from the shooting scene. “I thought, ‘Something is going on. Something is wrong.’ Then I heard the gunshots.”

Lee ran back inside his shop, called 911, then dove behind a counter to dodge possible stray gunfire. When he peered out again, he saw Ngo dead in the Robotek parking lot.

Two of Ngo’s friends drove up to the store after the shooting and saw the windshield of his Honda shattered with bullets and his white tennis shoes sticking out from a tarp on the asphalt. They said they raced away to alert Ngo’s family, who own a Vietnamese restaurant just blocks away.

The college-bound man’s mother arrived a short time later. When she learned of her son’s violent death, she went limp, sobbing in her brother’s arms. Police quickly whisked her out of view.

‘Wrong Place, Wrong Time’

Another 18-year-old was fighting for his life at UCI Medical Center on Monday afternoon, with his family, shocked and clearly distraught, waiting nervously in the hospital waiting room.

Edward Kim of Garden Grove, who relatives said is not related to store owner Charlie Kim, was being treated for wounds to his back and abdomen and spent much of Monday afternoon in UCI’s operating room. Kim was out of surgery about 5:40 p.m. and was transferred to the intensive care ward.

“We’ve got a person between life and death,” said Kim’s uncle, who did not identify himself. “That’s all we care about right now.”

The uncle said Kim was not an employee at Robotek; he just happened to be there: “It was wrong place, wrong time.”

The two other gunshot victims at UCI also were listed in critical condition.

The owner of Robotek, Kim, suffered gunshot wounds to his right side, cheek, arm, buttocks, thigh and neck, said Pine, the hospital spokeswoman. Kim was out of surgery by 6 p.m.

Vo, who was inside the Honda when Ngo was killed, also was out of surgery by 6 p.m. He is expected to fully recover, Pine said.

Vo’s father, Henry Vo, raced to the UCI emergency room and, though relieved his son was OK, agonized over the death of his son’s friend.

“Tony’s dead! Tony’s dead!” the horrified father shouted to his wife.

The father said his son and Ngo were good friends and went to Robotek to spiff up Ngo’s Honda Accord.

Store Caters to Young, Male Clients

Robotek is one of hundreds of performance tuning and appearance shops in Southern California that cater to a mostly young, male clientele of import and compact car enthusiasts. Such shops sell everything from custom wheels and low-profile tires to turbochargers and nitrous oxide systems that can double an engine’s horsepower.

Nationally, performance compact car enthusiasts spend well over $100 million a year on equipment to “trick out” their cars, according to Specialty Equipment Market Assn., the Diamond Bar-based trade group for the automotive speed and customizing equipment aftermarket.

While the import craze is big in most urban areas, it is especially strong in Southern California, where Asian car makers sell more vehicles than in any other part of the country. The 16- to 25-year-olds who make up the bulk of the market spend an average of several thousand dollars a year on their cars, which are mainly late-model Hondas, Acuras, Toyotas, Mitsubishis and Nissans.

Robotek sits along a stretch of Brookhurst and nearby Garden Grove Boulevard dotted with Korean-owned businesses and “is not an area considered crime prone,” said Ellsworth, the police spokesman.

That wasn’t the case June 3, however, when a man walked into another automotive store on the 13000 block of Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove and opened fire, killing one customer and severely wounding another. The shooting happened at ZOOMi Racing Automotive.

Police described the gunman as an Asian man, with a medium build, in his late teens or early 20s. He wore dark clothing and gloves. No suspect has been found in that case.

Authorities said that so far, there is no connection between the two shootings.

Times staff writers Janet Wilson, Daniel Yi, Brady MacDonald, Kate Folmar, John O’Dell and Scott Gold contributed to this report.

* AGONY AND HORROR: Friends and relatives rush to the scene as news of the tragedy quickly spreads. A12

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Deadly Rampage

A gunman killed two people and wounded four others Monday afternoon at a Garden Grove auto accessory store before fleeing in a minivan driven by an accomplice, police said.

Inside Robotek: 1 killed, 3 wounded

Parking lot: 1 killed, 1 wounded

Gunman flees in gray minivan

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD/ Los Angeles Times