Teen Caught in Gunfight Shot to Death

GARDEN GROVE — A Westminster High School student walking home from the grocery store with his mother was shot to death when he stumbled into a gunfight, authorities said Wednesday.

Long Quang Bui, 18, of Garden Grove died from a chest wound. The target of the bullets, Duc Xuan Vuong, 26, also of Garden Grove, was grazed in the back of his shoulder during Tuesday night’s shooting, Police Sgt. Mike Handfield said.

The dead man’s father, Tuan Bui, 40, sat in his apartment Wednesday with one hand on his forehead, and a photograph of his son in the other.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Tuan Bui said. “I’m still numb.”

Bui and his mother had been visiting his sister at the grocery store where she worked. It was less than a block from their home. They bought ice cream, sodas and chips for a nephew and planned to spend the rest of the night playing with the boy, who lived in the same complex as Vuong, relatives said, across the street from Bui.

About 9 p.m., three gunmen approached Vuong in an alley behind his gated apartment complex in the 8600 block of Westminster Boulevard and fired dozens of shots at him, Police Sgt. Joe Johnson said. Vuong was wounded but continued running to the front of the complex.

Bui heard the gunfire, told his mother to take cover and dashed toward the complex, police and family members said, into the path of the gunmen.

“We think he just panicked and ran for the house, right into one of the suspects,” Handfield said. “The suspect may have even thought that he was a threat because he was running toward him.”

The gunman fired one shot to Bui’s chest from several yards away, and the teenager stumbled to the middle of the street and collapsed, police said.

“I don’t know if the shots were meant for him or the other guy,” Johnson said. “At this point, we believe it was Vuong they were looking for.”

The gunmen were last seen running east toward Yockey Street, which borders the apartment complex, Handfield said. Police are trying to determine whether the shooting is gang-related, Handfield said.

Bui’s mother, Hue Nguyen, screamed hysterically as she ran toward her son after he was shot, relatives said she told them.

Bui kept mumbling he wanted his father, Tuan Bui said. “It was as if he knew he was dying. By the time I got there, he was unconscious.”

The teenager died on the way to UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Family members described Bui as a loyal son who enjoyed playing basketball. He loved cars and wanted to become an auto mechanic. Tuan Bui said he recently helped his son buy a car but took it away because he was staying out late and getting into trouble.

He was hoping to spend the summer with his girlfriend, relatives said.

“He had so much to look forward to,” his father said.