5 Hurt in Gang Confrontation at Topanga Beach : Violence: Deputies say the incident is the latest in an extraordinarily bloody summer on local beaches.

Two young women were stabbed and three others beaten in a 2:30 a.m. confrontation between rival gangs on the sand at Topanga State Beach on Sunday.

Authorities described the incident as the latest outbreak of violence in an extraordinarily contentious and bloody summer at the beaches of Malibu.

Long regarded in popular culture as the playground of the “Barbie and Ken” crowd, Malibu’s beaches--from Topanga out past Zuma--are increasingly a hangout for inner-city gang members as well.

Police say gang members often congregate at the beaches in the early morning hours, particularly on weekends, to relax and carouse after a night of cruising in Hollywood and elsewhere.

“We’ve had a major-league upswing” in gang activity, said Detective William Soltis of the Malibu Station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “We have shootings and stabbings on a regular basis.”

Authorities have no suspects in the weekend gang confrontation, and complain that the gang members and their girlfriends--even those victimized--are refusing to cooperate with the investigation. Such is usually the case, they say, even between rival gangs.

“They prefer to take care of it themselves at a later date,” Soltis said. “You just can’t get any answers out of these people, even the women.”

One of the victims, Rosa Gutierrez, 20, of Culver City, remained in the hospital Wednesday with stab wounds to the face and chest and a collapsed lung.

Although Soltis said the injured young women were affiliated with one of the two gangs that were feuding on the beach, Gutierrez denied it in an interview from her bed in Santa Monica Hospital. “We’re not from nowhere, not from any gang,” she said. “We didn’t know why they were doing this.”

“I don’t go to that beach often,” she said. “It wasn’t the right night to go.”

This summer, according to Soltis, Topanga Beach has become “a favorite hangout” for Latino gangs from the Westside, San Fernando Valley, East Los Angeles and as far away as Oxnard.

The gangs tend to favor Topanga and Westward and El Pescador beaches because they are easily accessible from Pacific Coast Highway, the Santa Monica Freeway and Topanga Canyon Boulevard, authorities say.

Topanga is just half a mile from the Los Angeles city line and only a few miles from Santa Monica, Soltis noted, so gang members can quickly flee to another police jurisdiction if trouble breaks out.

Randy DeGregori, assistant chief lifeguard for Los Angeles County, agreed that the summer has been a troublesome one.

Gang violence, he said, “usually comes in the spring and then disappears. This year, it doesn’t seem to have disappeared. There are still incidents.”

DeGregori said gang members are probably responsible for several strong-arm robberies, assaults and reports of gunfire at Malibu beaches this summer.

And although Topanga beach is in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, gangs have become a problem on the beaches of the newly incorporated city of Malibu too.

Although beaches are technically off-limits late at night, usually after 11 p.m., citations are never issued, DeGregori said.

Soltis said deputies often find out about the gang confrontations only if someone is seriously hurt. Frequently they respond to reports of gang violence only to find no one at the scene--the gang members usually pile into their cars and take off, taking their injured with them.

Most gang confrontations are not violent. But authorities say the growing numbers of gang members hanging out at the beach increases the chances of friction.

Usually, Soltis said, one group of gang members will approach others already on the beach or in the parking lot and ask them to identify themselves. “If they get the wrong answer,” he said, “the problems start.”

In early April, a violent confrontation involving at least 70 gang members turned Zuma Beach into a battleground. One youth was stabbed in the chest and critically wounded, and dozens of beach-goers had to flee to safety while deputies attempted to restore order.

On May 7, a 53-year-old man was stabbed on Malibu Road during an attempted robbery by several alleged gang members from Oxnard. “They were just out for a cruise at the beach and needed money for gas to get home,” Soltis said.

In Sunday’s incident, one group of male gang members left their girlfriends to head farther down the beach and face off with members of a rival gang, authorities said. When shots were fired, the girls started to run to their car and were confronted and beaten by a group of between four and a dozen gang members. Two of the victims were stabbed and the others punched and kicked, authorities said.

Rosa Gutierrez’s injuries were the most serious. Gutierrez’s sister, Maria, and Marisol Sanchez, both 18 and from Culver City, were also hurt, as were two juveniles, one of whom was treated at Santa Monica Hospital for a concussion and a small stab wound, Soltis said.