A man who was shot in the face by potential street racers while he was driving through Garden Grove with his wife and child this weekend was lucky to be alive, police said Monday.

The family, which has not been named, was traveling westbound on Westminster Avenue near Newhope Street shortly before 10 p.m. when they heard “a popping sound” and their back window blew out, said Lt. Bob Bogue, a spokesman for the Garden Grove Police Department.

At least two bullets came through the back window, with one hitting the husband – sitting in the front passenger seat – in the left cheek and the other lodging in his headrest, Bogue said.

Behind the family’s vehicle, “two cars were coming up fast from behind at a high rate of speed,” Bogue said. “They were going so fast next to each other that they were either racing or one was trying to catch the other.”


Police are looking for the drivers of those vehicles; one is a white Cadillac sport utility vehicle and the other is unknown, Bogue said.

After the shots rang out, the wife drove straight to Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center as the two other vehicles sped past, Bogue said. The bullet did not hit any bones, and the man, who is in his 30s, was badly injured but is expected to survive, Bogue said.

“It was lucky for him,” Bogue said. “Another inch over, and it would have hit him in the spine and paralyzed him.”

The couple’s 10-year-old son was sitting directly behind him in the back seat, Bogue said.


Police will be seeking video from nearby businesses and found a fragment of a bullet or bullet casing on the road where the shooting occurred, Bogue said.

“It’s very unusual,” Bogue said of the shooting. “It’s obvious they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

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