Police are stepping up patrols and seeking new laws aimed at halting a string of violent incidents at late-night cyber cafes in central Orange County, including the death early Monday of 20-year-old man attacked while waiting to play a video game.
Dozens of cyber cafes have sprung up in Garden Grove and surrounding cities, bustling through the night with teens who come to access the Internet and play the latest video games. But the late-night venues have increasingly drawn gang members and others looking for trouble, authorities said.
Garden Grove and Santa Ana have been the hardest hit, reporting more than a dozen assaults, stabbings and robberies in recent months at the cafes. This weekend's attack marked the first slaying, and Garden Grove authorities said they will ask the City Council to pass ordinances more strictly regulating the cafes and limiting the hours teens can patronize them.
"It's always alarming when you have this type of increase in violence," Garden Grove Police Sgt. Mike Handfield said. "We've tried to be active but there's only so much you can do."
Sunday's attack, police said, occurred shortly after Phuong Huu Ly and a friend arrived at PC Cafe about 8:35 p.m., intending to spend the evening playing video games for $2 an hour. As they entered, the pair spotted two boys about 16 years old watching them from inside, police said.
The cafe, which stays open until 4 a.m., was full, so Ly and his friend smoked a cigarette outside as they waited for a computer to become available. A few minutes later, the two teenage boys from inside confronted them, authorities said.
One of the boys pulled a large screwdriver he had tucked into his waistband and stabbed Ly in the head, police said. The assailants ran, yelling gang monikers as they jumped into a light green Honda Accord and sped east on Garden Grove Boulevard.
Ly, of Santa Ana, was pronounced dead 7 1/2 hours later at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange. Police identified him as a "gang associate," and said they suspect the slaying was motivated by a gang rivalry.
Though Garden Grove police have not kept statistics on the trend, officials said they have noticed a steady rise in violence at the city's 19 cyber cafes. Gang detectives, in particular, have spent extra time scouting out the venues in search of troublemakers.
"We're trying to get up to speed," Handfield said. "We didn't anticipate this many problems."
