Gunfire Hits 2 at Birthday Party Melee : Violence: School district police officer in serious condition. Third man is stabbed.

An off-duty Los Angeles Unified School District police officer was shot early Sunday during a melee at a birthday party in Northridge that also left two other people injured, authorities said.

Doug Theus, 25, was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center with bullet wounds shortly after the 12:40 a.m. shooting outside a home in the 8300 block of Tunney Avenue, Los Angeles Police Officer Carol Cooper said. He was in serious but stable condition Sunday night, a nursing supervisor said.

Two others involved in the altercation were taken by friends to the same hospital. Todd Seidler, 23, and Juan Baraza, 25, were reported in stable condition Sunday night. Seidler was treated for a stab wound and Baraza was treated for gunshot wounds.

Another school district police officer who was at the party--Donald Norek, 28--was not hurt, Cooper said. Both officers were party guests and were armed. School district police are full-fledged police officers trained by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Los Angeles police, responding to a report of shots fired, found Theus lying on the sidewalk across the street from the house. A neighbor who asked not to be named said he saw Theus dragged there by Norek.

Cooper said an argument during the party, which was attended by 50 people, escalated into a fight and the officers apparently were assaulted by several people as they tried to break it up. But, she said, it was not clear “who they were assaulted by and who they shot.”