Party Erupts in Gunfire; Youth Killed : Shooting: A second person is wounded when guests draw guns after a fight breaks out. Police are investigating possible gang involvement.
FULLERTON — A party attended by almost 100 people turned deadly Friday night when several guests unleashed a barrage of bullets that killed a 17-year-old boy and wounded a young man, police said Saturday.
Police are investigating the possibility that the shooting was gang-related, Sgt. Danny Becerra said.
Officers found Nam H. Cai, 17, of Yorba Linda lying on the sidewalk of the 2200 block of North Heritage Way at 11:40 p.m., bleeding from several gunshot wounds, Becerra said. He died two hours later at UCI Medical Center in Orange.
A second victim, 20-year-old Phuong Vo of Fullerton, was shot in the chest and remained in stable condition Saturday at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton. He told detectives that he was driven to the hospital by friends, Becerra said.
According to Becerra, about 100 people, mostly students from Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, attended the party given by a 17-year-old boy. The boy’s parents, who had gone to Palm Desert for the weekend, returned home Saturday morning after they were told of the shooting, Becerra said.
For reasons still unknown, Becerra said, a fight broke out between some of the party-goers, and several drew guns and opened fire. A fusillade of at least 25 shots was fired, and several stray bullets struck neighboring houses, the sergeant said. No one outside the party was hurt.
Becerra said police determined that a number of people who attended the party are gang members.
In the bedroom of the teen-ager who threw the party, police found a gun believed to have been stolen during a residential burglary, Becerra said. The boy was taken to the Police Department for questioning, then released into the custody of his parents. The investigation into the gun is continuing, Becerra said, but police do not believe it was used in the Friday night shooting.
The teen-ager and his mother returned to their house, located on a quiet cul-de-sac, in the Sunny Hills neighborhood late Saturday morning. His eyes teary, he apologized to several of his neighbors as his mother stood aside, silently crying. Both declined to be interviewed.
Police said they have no suspects in the shooting, and an investigation is continuing.
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