2 Men Beaten, 1 Shot at Westminster Eatery

An attack in a Westminster restaurant sent two diners to the hospital Tuesday.

Hung Tran and Thien Ngo, both 37, were having dinner at the Lae Huyen Cam Restaurant on the 14000 block of Brookhurst Street about 5 p.m. when four or five men walked in and began beating them with a large object, possibly a baseball bat or mop handle, police said.

“They just came in and started whacking them,” said Sgt. Tom Broderson of the Westminster Police Dept.

After Ngo ran to the back of the restaurant to escape, Broderson said, one of the assailants pulled a gun and shot Tran. Ngo, of Garden Grove, was taken to Fountain Valley Community Hospital with a head wound from the beating, while Tran, of Santa Ana, was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange with a gunshot wound in the face.

Both were reported in stable condition.

“We have no clue what happened,” said Broderson, adding that the investigation was continuing. He could not say whether the attack was gang-related. “Normally the victims in gang-related stuff aren’t that old,” he said, “but right now we don’t know what the motive was.”