Youths Sought in Shooting at Villa Park High School

Sheriff’s deputies Thursday were seeking several young men who fired shots in the parking lot at Villa Park High School, authorities said.

No injuries were reported in the shooting, which occurred between 2:45 and 3 p.m. Several students told of hearing bullets “whiz by,” and one bullet hit the rear window and windshield of a car parked in the school lot, school officials said.

It was not clear how many bullets were fired, Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said. Some witnesses said four rounds were fired, while others said they heard eight to 10.

Shortly after the shooting, Cypress police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies stopped two men and a juvenile in Hawaiian Gardens who were in a car similar to one that had fled the high school parking lot, Olson said.

However, the two men, who were not identified, were released when it was determined that they were driving a similar car but were not involved in the school shooting, Sheriff’s Lt. Thomas Conner said.

A 15-year-old Anaheim youth with the two was taken to Juvenile Hall on suspicion of possessing stolen property.

Principal Richard Kirwan said the young men involved in the shooting had been ordered to leave the campus about noon after they had badgered two female students for a date.

Although Kirwan was uncertain of the motive for the shooting, he said students told him that the men wanted to date the students “who didn’t want anything to do with them.”

The men were chased off campus by several male students.

An assistant principal told the young men to stay off the campus and contacted sheriff’s deputies, who interviewed them and ordered them to leave the area, Kirwan said.

“But they returned in a car and took several shots,” Kirwan said.

As a precaution, school officials have asked sheriff’s deputies and security officers from the Orange Unified School District to heavily patrol the campus area today.