GARDEN GROVE – A 30-year-old man was fatally shot in the chest and face at noon Monday in a restaurant-heavy strip mall at Harbor Boulevard and Trask Avenue teeming with people eating lunch, police said.

Before the man was shot, he got into a verbal argument with the suspected shooter, a man who was about 30 years old, police said. When the spat began, the victim was in a gray SUV in a parking lot; it is unclear if the suspect was in a vehicle or on foot.

After the shooting, the suspect took off in the victim’s SUV and drove north on Harbor.

It is unclear if the crime was a carjacking or something more complex, said Lt. Bob Bogue of the Garden Grove Police Department.

“We don’t exactly know what happened,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like a typical carjacking.”

The dead man, who had not been identified, had a girlfriend with him; police were interviewing her and looking at security-camera footage from nearby businesses, Bogue said.

Her account is not matching up with the video, the lieutenant said.

Police are also interviewing other witnesses.

More to come.

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