Couple Slain, 2 Teens Injured

A couple were shot to death in their Garden Grove home Tuesday, and two teenagers believed to be their children were wounded, authorities said.

Police were looking for a man -- possibly of Vietnamese ancestry, about 45 years old, 5 feet 7, with medium build and wearing a tan jacket -- whom neighbors said they saw running from the house holding a gun.

“There is some relationship between the suspect and the victims,” said Lt. Scott Hamilton, a spokesman for the Garden Grove Police Department. “We just don’t know what it is.”

The family members’ names were not released, pending identity confirmation. They had lived at the house only a couple of months, neighbors said.

Police said the shootings occurred about 3:30 p.m. in the 13400 block of Wilson Street. Neighbors reported hearing as many as a dozen shots.

“The family that lived there before always shot off firecrackers,” said Don Untch, 71, who lives down the street, “so I didn’t think much of it at first. It didn’t sound like small-caliber -- this was a ‘Kaboom!’ ”

Jacqueline Perkins, 39, another neighbor, said she was helping her son with his homework when she heard the shots and looked out a window. “I saw a man with a gun who looked like he’d run out the back door and was trying to get away,” she said. “He was in a big hurry.”

Police said they found the couple -- described as in their early 40s -- dead in the house, he on the living room sofa and she in a bathroom. A 17-year-old boy, believed to be their son, was shot in the ankle; the 14-year-old girl, believed to be his sister, was shot in the buttocks, Hamilton said.

The teens were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, with the injuries termed non-life-threatening.

Neighbors described the family as quiet newcomers who had moved in around Christmas. “They mostly kept to themselves,” said Todd Maloney, 40.

Late Tuesday, police had cordoned off the street and were interviewing witnesses around the three-bedroom yellow house with green trim. “At this point, we have no theories,” Hamilton said.

He said the shooting did not appear to be gang-related and was not a murder-suicide, nor were there signs of forced entry, robbery or home invasion. “What does that leave?” he said. “We’re still trying to piece it together.”

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Times staff writer Mai Tran contributed to this report.