Suspected Gang Members Jailed in Boy’s Death

ORANGE —  Police have arrested two men in connection with the slaying last week of a 15-year-old who was sitting in his parents’ car preparing to attend a religious retreat with his mother, authorities said Monday.

The two men in custody, both suspected gang members, were involved in a Friday evening gun battle along Lewis Street near Garden Grove Boulevard, police said.

One of approximately 10 bullets fired tore through the trunk of the car where Lazaro Omar Acosta Jr. sat, striking him in the chest, police said.

Acosta’s parents had just pulled their car into the parking lot of a Qwik Korner convenience store about 6:45 p.m. and gone inside to buy candy, police said.

“We are . . . convinced that the victim had no gang involvement and was an innocent bystander” caught in the cross-fire, said Lt. Timm Browne of the Orange Police Department.

The gun battle in the street apparently was sparked after a meeting between factions of a Garden Grove street gang, police said. Gang members had arranged for the meeting behind a Catholic church on Lewis Street, just north of the convenience store parking lot, police said.

About 12 members of the gang had driven their cars into the parking lot of St. Callistus Catholic Church to meet with two or three other members of the gang.

For unknown reasons, a member of the smaller group allegedly put a gun to the head of another member and pulled the trigger but the gun did not fire, witnesses told police. That sent the other gang members fleeing in their cars, police said.

The man with the gun ran onto Lewis Street and began shooting at the fleeing gang members, some of whom fired back, police said. No one but Acosta was shot during the confrontation, police said.

Officers located one suspect, Doi Ngoc Phung, 19, of Garden Grove, later Friday evening with about eight other people near an Orange motel, Browne said.

Police said they found that some group members were carrying weapons in their cars. The group members were taken to the police station for questioning, Browne said. From those weapons, police confiscated a handgun that may have been used in the Acosta slaying.

Phung, who is believed to have shot Acosta, was arrested on suspicion of murder at the station after witnesses identified him, police said.

Later, sources led officers to Phat Nguyen Cao, 18, who was arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday at his Riverside home. He is suspected of participating in the gun battle, police said.

Phung and Cao are being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail each and are scheduled for arraignment today in Municipal Court in Santa Ana.

Police asked that anyone with information about the shooting call Sgt. Dave Jensen or Detective John Whiteley at (714) 744-7316.