4 Students Arrested in Graffiti Spree : Antelope Valley: Police believe the youths are members of one of two groups of ‘taggers’ suspected in a recent rash of spray-painting incidents.

Four Antelope Valley high school students have been arrested and at least four more were being sought Wednesday as members of so-called tagger groups that have covered Palmdale with an unprecedented amount of graffiti this fall, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.

The arrests came after a Palmdale woman saw youngsters spraying graffiti Monday night and called deputies Tuesday with the license plate number of the youths’ vehicle. On Tuesday, one boy was arrested at his Palmdale home and three others were arrested at Littlerock High School, deputies said.

The youngsters have admitted writing some graffiti in the area, said Deputy Chris Haymond of the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station gang detail. Deputies, however, believe that the youngsters and other members of rival tagger groups are behind the wave of graffiti that has marred the city in recent months.

The graffiti is not gang-related, Haymond said, and the students arrested were not engaging in crimes other than vandalism. He said the students consider themselves taggers, self-styled artists who scrawl their identifying marks on walls, buildings, signs and just about anything else.

Haymond said as many as six high-desert tagger groups, emulating street vandals in urban Los Angeles, have been competing to see who can write the most graffiti in the area.

Sheriff’s deputies plan to ask the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to file misdemeanor vandalism petitions--the equivalent of charges for adults--against the four youths. Haymond said he hoped prosecutors will ask that the youths’ families be charged for the damage.

Deputies arrested a 17-year-old Lake Los Angeles boy, a 16-year-old Pearblossom boy and a 15-year-old Palmdale boy at the high school. Deputies also arrested a 16-year-old boy at his Palmdale home. All were released to their parents. As juveniles, their identities were not disclosed.

Haymond said the youngsters belonged to two tagger groups, each of which used three-letter combinations that stood for their group names. They typically stole spray paint from local stores and worked in the early morning hours when streets were largely deserted, he said.

Under a Palmdale city policy, the woman who reported the four to deputies will get a $1,000 reward if they are found guilty in Juvenile Court. City officials said a man who previously helped deputies with prior graffiti arrests will receive a $1,000 reward at the December council meeting.