Shootout in Little Saigon Leaves Suspect Dead, 1 Other Wounded : Robbery: Police seek motive for fabric store holdup. A neighboring merchant says robbers may have been attracted by gold sold there.

WESTMINSTER —  A midday shootout in a jewelry and fabric store Friday between robbers and an employee who surprised them Friday left one suspect dead and another in critical condition.

Police spokesman Robin Kapp said two men, armed with small-caliber, semiautomatic handguns, entered the Thanh Minh store in Little Saigon around 11:40 a.m. and forced a 61-year-old employee to a back office, where they began tying her up with duct tape.

Just then, two other employees who had been in the back of the store emerged and attacked the bandits. While the fight was on, a fourth employee--the 36-year-old son of the woman who was being tied--suddenly appeared with a gun, police said. The robbers opened fire but missed him, Kapp said. The son fired back, hitting both men.

One was dead on arrival at Humana Hospital-Westminster, Kapp said. The other was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he was in critical condition late Friday.

Police Lt. Bob Burnett said the dead man was identified as Mai Van Dung, 26. The survivor, who refused to identify himself, Kapp said, will be charged with attempted armed robbery.

Officers said they did not know why the store, at 9293 Bolsa Ave., was targeted for the midday robbery.

“Why they chose this place, who knows at this point,” said Westminster Police Sgt. Bill Lewis. “This isn’t a place that you would typically think would be subject to a robbery, but who knows?”

But Kiet Cow, who works in a music store next door, said that although he was surprised by the shooting, many of the area’s merchants have armed themselves because of a fear of robbery or other violence.

“Pretty recently, there was a shooting down by the Asian Village Mall,” Cow said, less than a quarter of a mile north on Bolsa Avenue. Nevertheless, Cow said, the collection of four low-rise businesses where the shootings took place had been spared--until Friday.

“We’ve been here 10 years now. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened,” Cow said.

Cow said he heard the shots.

“It was a muzzled sound. I heard three (shots). I didn’t keep count. I ran over to see what was going on. There were two guys on the floor, face down. I called 911 and told them there was a shooting here.” Cow said both of the men on the floor appeared conscious but badly hurt.

Another merchant, who gave only his first name, said the Thanh Minh store had been selling gold, and believed that had attracted the robbers. The merchant added that he was alerted that something had happened when the 61-year-old woman, Ly Thi Nguyen, ran screaming to the sidewalk outside the stores.

“The lady ran outside yelling, ‘Help, robber!’ ” said the merchant who identified himself as Wing.

The owner of another nearby store on Bolsa Avenue also saw the woman screaming.

“My dad saw it and he told me to call 911,” said Thanh Dinh. “He was just walking into the shop and he saw this lady yelling, ‘Robber! Robber!’ ”

Within minutes, as shoppers and merchants from nearby stores gathered, paramedics arrived. Westminster police quickly barricaded and blocked entry to the store, named Thanh Minh.

From outside, Thanh Minh appeared to be a small yardage store, with bolts of fabric leaning against walls. What jewelry was sold was not in conspicuous view.

Cow, whose store sells audiocassettes of locally recorded Vietnamese music, said the family members who own the Thanh Minh fabric and jewelry store had been in business there for about three years. Kapp said that all of the family members at the store during the robbery attempt live in La Crescenta.

Kapp identified the other store workers as Quy Duc Nguyen, 36, who fired at the robbers; Khoa Anh Nguyen, 17, a nephew of Ly Thi Nguyen; and Thanh Quoc Nguyen, 26, a son of Ly Thi Nguyen.