2 Teens Shot in Drive-By Attacks

Two South Bay teen-agers were wounded Thursday in separate drive-by shootings outside public schools. Authorities said gang members were suspected in the shootings in the normally peaceful areas of Inglewood and Lomita.

In the first incident, a shotgun blast fired from a van struck a junior at Hillcrest High School in Inglewood as he walked to class with fellow students near Inglewood High School. The student, Joseph Thomas Hardges, 17, was in stable condition last night at Martin Luther King Jr.--Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles with birdshot wounds in his upper body and face, police said.

Gang Slogans

In the second incident, a gunman in a black Camaro, whose occupants yelled gang slogans and threw bottles at students, shot a ninth grader as he left an afternoon tutoring session at Fleming Junior High School in Lomita. Adam Mendoza, 16, was in stable condition at county Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he was to undergo surgery late Thursday afternoon.

Police said they had not yet determined whether the victims were involved in gangs.

It was the third straight day of violence at schools in Los Angeles County. On Wednesday, a 15-year-old girl was stabbed more than a dozen times by a schoolmate as she walked to a bus stop at Huntington Park High School. She was in serious but stable condition late Thursday afternoon, according to a spokeswoman at County-USC Medical Center.

On Tuesday, a 13-year-old student at La Crescenta High School pulled a gun on a teacher and was arrested.

No Security Guard

The shooting at Fleming, a Los Angeles Unified School District school that does not have a security guard, was the first suspected gang incident there since 1974, said graphic arts teacher Jerry Roach.

Police, administrators and students said the shooting near Inglewood High School, where the grounds are tightly monitored by administrators and security officers, was the first they could remember in about four or five years.

Police were out in force at both schools Thursday afternoon as students gathered in groups to discuss the shootings. Officials said there would be extra security for the next several days at the schools.

Inglewood Supt. George McKenna said: “We don’t feel the situation is unsafe, but we’ve beefed up security. There will be additional surveillance in the area.”

Inglewood High School student Nina Lua, 16, said she was concerned about the possibility of a retaliatory shooting.

“Yeah, I’m worried,” she said. “But what can I do?”

Fatalistic Reaction

Administrators at both schools said the generally fatalistic reaction of students was significant.

“It’s kind of a sign of the times,” Roach said. “The kids are starting to accept this as an everyday affair.”

The Inglewood shooting occurred on Kelso Avenue next to the parking lot of the Inglewood Adult School, on the high school campus, two blocks from the city police station. The area is considered “extremely peaceful,” said Inglewood Police Sgt. Harold Moret, and is heavily patrolled by police and school security officers.

Hardges was walking with four other students next to Inglewood High School at 10:45 a.m. on his way to the Hillcrest school about five blocks away, Moret said, when three or four youths in a yellow passenger van flashed gang signs and yelled gang slogans at the students.

As the students kept walking, one of the occupants of the van fired a round from a shotgun. Hardges was hit in the face, neck, head and chest by birdshot, Moret said.

The assailants are believed to be Los Angeles gang members, Moret said.

Neither Hardges nor his companions are “known Inglewood gang members,” Moret said.

Hardges transferred to the Inglewood schools from Sylmar High School in 1988, according to a district official. He was placed in Hillcrest, a continuation high school for students who have disciplinary or academic problems or who work and cannot attend school full time.

The shooting occurred at a time when most students were in class, and did not disrupt school activities, said students and officials.

Students said Inglewood Principal Lawrence Freeman, who is credited with having established a safe, orderly atmosphere at the school, used the public address system to tell students to keep calm and remain indoors.

Crips and Bloods

Students said they believed the assailants are members of a Crip gang. They said the school is in territory dominated by rival Blood gangs.

In the Lomita shooting, police and school officials are investigating a report that the shooting of Mendoza stemmed from a rivalry between Harbor City and Torrance-area gangs.

Mendoza had just left a math tutoring session with Assistant Principal Constance Rupert when he was shot while standing in a courtyard between two shop buildings which face onto West 254th Street in the residential neighborhood, Rupert said.

Between five and seven shots were fired from a black Camaro on 254th street at about 1:30 p.m. The car was seen cruising around the school several times during the day, officials said, and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies had been patrolling the area earlier looking for the vehicle.

The occupants of the Camaro shouted gang slogans and threw bottles at students on a playground just before firing, witnesses said.

‘It Was Scary’

Susan Bobar, a student in a wood shop class, said she heard shots and saw Mendoza holding his shoulder. “Our teacher made us lie down on the floor for about two minutes,” she said. “It was scary.”

Mendoza walked to the nurse’s office, bleeding, and was given first aid until an ambulance arrived, Rupert said.

Contributing to this story were Times Staff Writers Adrianne Goodman, Hugo Martin, James Rainey and George Stein.