Man attacks ex-girlfriend in Bally’s parking lot

An El Monte man has been charged with four felony counts after he

poured gasoline on a woman, threatened her with a knife and attempted to

kidnap her in the parking lot of a Huntington Beach fitness center.

Hung Trinh Huynh, 24, was upset over the couple’s recent breakup,

police said and attacked his ex-girlfriend, 22-year-old Loan Phuong Dao,

of Westminster. She was not injured or hospitalized, following the

confrontation at 12:50 p.m. last Thursday in the parking lot of Bally’s

Fitness Center on Beach Boulevard, said Lt. Lloyd Edwards of the

Huntington Beach Police Department.

Huynh was arraigned in the West Justice Center in Westminster on

Monday and and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault with a

caustic chemical, kidnapping and stalking with a restraining order, said

officials with the Orange County District Attorney.

A pretrial hearing is set for today.

He confronted Dao in the parking lot as she was walking to her car and

held up a plastic bottle that contained a liquid. He then began pouring

the liquid, which he told her was gasoline, on her hair and upper torso,

police said.

They then walked to his black 1992 Acura when Dao asked Huynh if she

could change clothes in Bally’s because she said the substance was

burning her skin, Edwards said.

“He accompanied her inside and threatened her with a knife if she

screamed or tried to draw attention to herself,” Edwards said.

Once inside Dao began to cry uncontrollably and the manager soon

intervened and contacted the Huntington Beach Police Police Department.

Huynh fled the scene in his Acura, Edwards said.

Huntington Beach Police officers drove to El Monte to arrest Huynh at

his residence and also confiscated his car, Edwards said.