Detectives Redouble Efforts in Auto Parts Store Attacks

Garden Grove police announced Tuesday that detectives have stepped up efforts to solve recent shootings at two local auto accessories stores, where gunmen in separate incidents opened fire on employees and customers, killing a total of three people and leaving five more seriously wounded.

After sifting through dozens of unsuccessful leads, investigators have formed a 12-member task force in the hopes of unearthing a clear motive and possible suspects in this summer’s killings at ZOOMi Racing Automotive and Robotek Motorsports.

Detectives believe that the strong similarities between the two shootings--including the types of businesses where they occurred--indicate that there might be a link. But police also acknowledged that interviews with victims and witnesses have provided them with few useful clues and that investigators desperately need more information.

“That’s the frustrating part,” said Lt. Frank Hauptmann, who is heading the new task force. “It was the middle of the afternoon, when you have the potential for witnesses . . . and yet we don’t have any strong leads in this case.”

One customer was shot in the head and another wounded in the neck during the first shooting, on June 3 at ZOOMi on Harbor Boulevard. On Aug. 30, a gunman walked into Robotek, on Brookhurst Street, and shot six people, killing two.

In both cases, witnesses described the gunman as Asian and in his early 20s. And in both, the gunman entered the store during the afternoon and, without saying a word, opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun. Nothing was stolen during either shooting.

Early leads looked promising but yielded little. At one point, detectives were examining an angry phone call made to the owner of Robotek 30 minutes before the shooting as a possible clue to the killer’s identity. But investigators said Tuesday that they were unable to trace the call and downplayed its significance.

“It was a quick phone call,” Hauptmann said. Robotek’s owner “has had many types of calls like this over the years.”

Police released separate composite drawings of the gunman in each shooting but did not rule out the possibility that one man was responsible for both incidents. Investigators have had the drawings for a month but decided to circulate them among law enforcement agencies before now making them public, Capt. Dave Abrecht said.