Gang Member Held After Gun Fired at Junior High

A 16-year-old gang member was arrested Wednesday after he pursued two rival gang members onto the campus of their junior high school in Van Nuys and shot at them, Los Angeles police said.

No one was injured in the incident, which occurred about 8 a.m. at Mulholland Junior High School in the 17120 block of Vanowen Street near Balboa Boulevard, police said.

The youth who did the shooting, whose name was not released, was arrested at his home in Van Nuys on suspicion of attempted murder and taken to Sylmar Juvenile Hall, Detective Sandy Hendricks said.

After his arrest, the youth told police that he shot at the two 14-year-old boys because they kicked the side of his car, Hendricks said.

The 16-year-old encountered the two younger boys in the parking lot of a convenience store near the school, and they “flashed” gang signs and traded insults, police said.

The 16-year-old then pointed a pistol at the others, who fled onto the school grounds, Hendricks said.

The youth drove after them, and then entered the campus on foot and fired at least one shot before driving off, Hendricks said.

Police identified the 16-year-old, who is not a student, because witnesses recognized the car and knew where the driver lived, Hendricks said. Officers arrested the youth at 9:30 a.m. as he entered the car with his mother.

In the youth’s home, officers found a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol that had been reported stolen in August during the burglary of a home in Canoga Park, police said. The youth said he bought the gun for $300.

At the time of his arrest, the youth was also scheduled to appear in court to face charges of receiving stolen property, Hendricks said.

The officers said the bullet hit a wall a few feet from the two younger teen-agers.

Officers believed initially that the 16-year-old might have fired to scare the other boys but changed their minds when the bullet was found.

“When they saw where the bullet landed, they realized he fired directly at them,” Hendricks said. “It was total disregard for the safety of everyone in that area. He could have hit anyone entering school at that time.”

School officials would not comment on the incident.

Mulholland Junior High has an enrollment of 1,437 in grades six through eight, said Shel Erlich, spokesman for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

There have been two other gang-related shootings at junior high schools in the San Fernando Valley in the past year.

On May 21, Alejandro Penaloza, 14, was fatally shot outside Millikan Junior High School in Sherman Oaks as he was leaving campus.

On June 6, Erika Martinez, 14, was wounded in the groin as she waited for her mother to pick her up at a park across the street from Olive Vista Junior High School in Sylmar.

Officer Mark Miller said Mulholland Junior High School is not a hotbed of gang activity, but it is not unusual for gangs to recruit there.

“There’s no more gang activity there than any other school in the Valley,” he said. “There’s basically gang activity to some degree or another in all the schools in the Valley.”