2 Men Are Shot; 5 Teens Arrested : Crime: Police say chance encounter turned violent in shopping center in normally tranquil Irvine.

IRVINE —  Gunshots fired in a Woodbridge shopping center parking lot left two young men hospitalized Wednesday and five Orange County youths jailed on suspicion of attempted murder.

Police said that about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, young people in two cars met by chance in the Alton Square Shopping Center at Alton Parkway and Jeffrey Road, and the suspects forced the other car to stop.

“They got out and started speaking to each other in a threatening manner,” Lt. Sam Allevato said. One of the suspects drew a semi-automatic gun, but he was tackled by someone from the other car, Allevato said. “The gun went flying in the air, and one of the juvenile suspects picked it up and fired eight to 10 times, striking the two victims.”

The five suspects are associated with a gang, Allevato said. The victims apparently are not, he said.

News of the violence shook the city of Irvine, which just two months ago was named by Money Magazine as the safest city in the nation with a population of 100,000 or more. The FBI ranked Irvine the 10th-safest city in that category in the nation in 1992.

“I was surprised, not only in the location of the shooting, which was in front of a doughnut store, but that there were juveniles out at 11:30 on a school night,” Irvine Mayor Michael Ward said. “Where are the parents?”

Ward said he considers the shooting “a crying shame,” that warrants community attention to prevent a recurrence. But he also emphasized, “This does not mean Irvine is not safe. There are communities in Southern California where this happens every night.”

Ward said the last shooting in Irvine involving gang members occurred two years ago at Stonecreek Shopping Center, also in the upscale Woodbridge community.

On Tuesday, only a Ralphs supermarket, a doughnut shop and a service station were open at Alton Square when the shooting broke out.

One witness, a 21-year-old Irvine man, said he was leaving Star Doughnuts when he heard gunfire and saw the suspects leaving in their car, shooting parting shots at the victims who were running to a public phone to call for help. One of those shots hit the sign shop window, police said.

Witnesses provided a description of the suspects’ car, an Acura Legend, and its license plate number. Garden Grove police stopped the suspects within an hour on Garden Grove Boulevard at the Garden Grove Freeway.

The victims were identified as Phillip Kotangian, 20, of Whittier, who was shot in the back, and Daniel Vartanian, 20, of Montebello, who was shot in the left arm and lower back. Both were in stable condition at a Santa Ana hospital, police said.

Arrested on suspicion of attempted murder were Dan Trung Hoang, 19, of Anaheim; Thanh Ngoc Phan, 19, of Irvine; a 16-year-old Westminster girl; a 17-year-old Irvine boy, and a 16-year-old Fullerton boy.