Local News in Brief : Students Hurt in Shooting

Three female students walking to George Washington Preparatory High School in South-Central Los Angeles Tuesday morning were caught in the cross-fire of a gang-related shooting near campus and hospitalized with minor gunshot wounds, authorities said.

The students, who were treated and released from Centinela Hospital, were on their way to school at 7:45 a.m. when two people in a moving car began exchanging gunfire with five people standing on the street across from the campus, said Lt. Tony Denis of the Sheriff’s Lennox substation.

Deputies arrested one juvenile and one adult, Damon Lane, 18, address unknown, and charged them with assault with a deadly weapon. It was not known whether the two were students at the school.

“The students were not the target,” said George McKenna, principal of the 2,800-student school. “They were struck randomly. Gunshots are a common occurrence in this neighborhood. We hear it during school, after hours. The community is volatile and it makes our job that much tougher.”