2 Die, 1 Hurt in Weekend of Violence : Shootings: About 24 hours after Friday night’s killing, a teen-ager is slain on Blythe Street in Van Nuys. A man is wounded Sunday about a block away.

Two teen-age boys, described as typical high school students, were shot and killed in unrelated incidents when they crossed paths with suspected gang members during a bloody weekend in the San Fernando Valley, police said.

A 16-year-old boy from Bell Gardens was shot Saturday night with what police said was a high-powered assault rifle, after a gang surrounded the vehicle in which he was a passenger on a Van Nuys street notorious for drug dealing and gang activity.

About 24 hours earlier, a 17-year-old North Hollywood High School student was shot at point-blank range in front of about 100 classmates celebrating a victory by their school’s football team in North Hollywood. Police on Sunday were continuing to look for a suspect who was identified by witnesses.

A third person was wounded Sunday afternoon in a drive-by shooting on Blythe Street about one block west of where the Bell Gardens youth was shot, police said. Leon Lopez, whose age and city of residence were not released, was in stable condition at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills after being shot about 2 p.m., police said.

Police said the third shooting appeared to be gang-related and that the shots probably were fired from a passing car. Witnesses said they heard a rapid succession of shots. Lopez was standing outside an apartment complex when he was shot, witnesses said.

No suspects in the shootings were in custody Sunday afternoon and police said they had not determined motives for any of the attacks.

Los Angeles Police Detective Ernie Valdez said the 16-year-old killed Saturday was shot in the back as he and three friends tried to flee about a dozen youths on Blythe Street. Their car had been forced to stop and turn around by barricades placed in the 14500 block of the crime-ridden street to deter drug dealing in the area.

The victim’s name was not released Sunday.

“They don’t even reside in the Van Nuys area,” Valdez said of the youths in the car. “They were just lost.”

They had been headed for a friend’s house in Burbank and were searching for a freeway when they turned onto Blythe Street from Van Nuys Boulevard.

Valdez declined to identify the boys, describing them only as decent young men with jobs who lived outside the San Fernando Valley. “We’re satisfied that they’re not gang members,” he said.

One of the youths in the group that surrounded the car carried a high-powered assault rifle and fired two rounds into the hatchback’s rear window as the four boys tried to escape, police said.

The bullets tore through a rear seat and struck the boy in the torso, Valdez said. His companions called for help from a pay telephone at the corner of Valerio Street and Van Nuys Boulevard and the boy was rushed to Holy Cross Hospital, where he died about 20 minutes later.

Valdez said it’s unclear whether the gunman thought the boys were members of a rival gang or whether he had been angered when the boys tried to drive away.

Police also continued to search Sunday for Louis Arturo Velarde, 22, suspected of killing 17-year-old Glen Richard Avila of North Hollywood on Friday night.

Avila, a senior, had joined classmates at Yum Yum Donuts across the street from North Hollywood High School to celebrate their school’s 31-20 victory over Monroe High School earlier that evening. Avila, who was not a gang member, was approached by a gunman in the parking lot and shot as scores of horrified students watched.

Police said Velarde is a gang member described as being 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighing 180 pounds. Velarde has several tattoos on his upper body, including one on his arm with the inscription “Blondie.”

Times staff writer Philipp Gollner contributed to this story.