Shotgun Blasts Hurt 4 Students in 3rd Shooting Tied to Gangs

The third gang-related drive-by shooting this week at San Fernando Valley schools and parks slightly injured four students who were hit with shotgun pellets at James Monroe High School in Sepulveda, authorities said.

Three girls and one boy were treated for pellet wounds after the 10:35 a.m. Wednesday shooting that occurred while dozens of students were returning to classes after a nutrition break.

“A car came cruising by the school as the students were heading back in and one person got out and walked to the back of the car with a shotgun,” Los Angeles police Lt. Harvie Eubank said. “When the shooting went down, everybody in the school yard started running and ducking and screaming.”

The gunman fired at least two blasts with the shotgun before jumping back into the car, which then sped away, Eubank said. No arrests have been made. Police believe the occupants of the car, and at least two of the victims, were gang members.

Monroe Principal Joan Elam said the three girls, who are in the 11th grade, were treated by a school nurse. The boy, a 10th grader, was treated at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills and released.

Eubank said the pellets did not break the skin of the victims, who were hit from about 25 feet away. The girls suffered only one or two wounds while the boy was hit by as many as 50 pellets.

“He was the intended target,” Eubank said. “He had red marks on him from his neck to his ankles.”

Investigators were attempting to determine if the shooting was related to other drive-by shootings earlier this week. On Tuesday afternoon, police said, shots were fired from a car at a group of gang members leaving Reseda High School, but no one was injured. On Tuesday night, a suspected gang member was slightly injured by bullets fired from a car cruising next to Delano Park in Van Nuys.

The shootings involved members of several different gangs and, so far, there is no evidence linking any of the shootings, police said.

On Wednesday, while police were investigating the shooting at Monroe High, other officers went to Reseda High as a precaution in case the two shootings were related. While there, they stopped what could have been a violent gang confrontation, police said.

Police said 11 gang members from Van Nuys were found sitting in cars along a sidewalk where members of a rival gang would have walked after school let out, Detective Stan Miller said.

“They had golf clubs, but no golf balls,” Miller said. “They had baseball bats, but no mitts and no baseballs. We think they were waiting there . . . and there would have been a confrontation.”

Police briefly detained the Van Nuys gang members and then dispersed the group, Miller said. They were gone by the time classes ended at Reseda High, he said.

Authorities had no clear explanation for this week’s rash of gang-related violence, but theorized that the shootings were acts of retribution for gang turf violations and other shootings. Police said many schools in the Valley have students from several different gangs--from the local neighborhood as well as those bused in from other areas. The mixture can create a climate for conflict.

“There is a lot of tension on some campuses,” Lt. William Gaida said. “Part of the reason for the tension is the number of gangs we have.”