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. Such shops sell everything from custom wheels and low-profile tires to turbochargers and nitrous oxide systems that can double an engine’s horsepower. 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. The father said his son and Ngo were good friends and went to Robotek to spiff up Ngo’s Honda Accord. “Tony’s dead! Tony’s dead!” the horrified father shouted to his wife. 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. He is expected to fully recover, Pine said. Vo, who was inside the Honda when Ngo was killed, also was out of surgery by 6 p.m. The owner of Robotek, Kim, suffered gunshot wounds to his right side, cheek, arm, buttocks, thigh and neck, said Pine, the hospital spokeswoman. The two other gunshot victims at UCI also were listed in critical condition. The uncle said Kim was not an employee at Robotek he just happened to be there: “It was wrong place, wrong time.” “We’ve got a person between life and death,” said Kim’s uncle, who did not identify himself. and was transferred to the intensive care ward. Police quickly whisked her out of view.Īnother 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.Įdward 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. When she learned of her son’s violent death, she went limp, sobbing in her brother’s arms.
The college-bound man’s mother arrived a short time later. They said they raced away to alert Ngo’s family, who own a Vietnamese restaurant just blocks away. 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. When he peered out again, he saw Ngo dead in the Robotek parking lot. Lee ran back inside his shop, called 911, then dove behind a counter to dodge possible stray gunfire. Something is wrong.’ Then I heard the gunshots.” “He was hiding,” said Lee, owner of Kevin’s Auto Center across Larson Avenue from the shooting scene.
Lee saw a mechanic cowering behind a wall near Robotek’s auto bay. Kevin Lee was across the street from the storefront auto-parts store when he heard the “pop pop pop” of a handgun. Police said they were driving a 1990 to 1994 gray Mazda MPV minivan with tinted windows.
ROBOTEK BROOKHURST ST DRIVER
The gunman and the driver were last seen headed east on Larson Avenue and north on Flower Street, witnesses and police said. Witnesses told police the gunman was an Asian man in his 20s, wearing a dark shirt, jeans and a dark baseball cap. The store specializes in lowering cars and trucks and outfitting them with chrome wheel rims and other flashy accessories.
Robotek draws a steady crowd of young customers from the ethnically diverse Garden Grove community. Two spectators who described themselves as former Robotek employees identified the owner as Kim, who opened the shop with his wife in 1995. No one who was inside Robotek recognized the gunman. Ellsworth said a handgun was used in the shootings but declined to reveal the caliber. Police were reluctant to release details of the shooting. “We don’t know if it’s gang related or a random act of violence,” Ellsworth said. A third man was seen fleeing the area on foot, but police said he might have been a frightened bystander. Dennis Ellsworth of the Garden Grove Police Department. 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. Police have not released the identity of the person killed inside the store. A bullet pierced Vo’s neck and grazed his hand, but the 17-year-old is expected to survive. 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.
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