Suspect Sought in Shooting Death in Garden Grove

GARDEN GROVE —  Police were searching for a suspect Thursday night in a shooting that left one man dead outside a Vietnamese restaurant.

Lt. Ron Weigand said the shooting occurred shortly after 5 p.m. when two men became involved in an altercation outside the My Nguyen restaurant in the 14000 block of Brookhurst Street.

Weigand said the victim, Huy Le Ho, 26, of Anaheim was shot twice with a small-caliber handgun, stumbled into the restaurant and collapsed. The gunman fled on foot.

The shooting caused traffic to be backed up on Brookhurst as the victim was airlifted to UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Weigand said it did not appear that the shooting was tied to gang activity.

Tom Chuong, who identified himself as a friend of the restaurant’s owner, said he was inside the establishment visiting when he heard gunshots.

“I was very scared,” Chuong said. “I ran out the back door and hid until the police came.”

Chuong said he did not know whether the victim and the suspect had been in the restaurant before the shooting.

My Nguyen restaurant was the scene of a gang-related shooting in November, 1985, that left two young Vietnamese men dead and four others wounded. The shooting occurred after one of the victims flirted with a gang leader’s date. Five young men were convicted of first-degree murder, assault and conspiracy and sentenced to lengthy prison terms earlier this year.