Goodby Party Turned Into Scene of Terror, Bloodshed : Shooting: Six young people hurt in drive-by attack told assailants they were not gang members. Then the gunfire started.

Fifteen-year-old Ernesto Izquierdo heard gunshots and instantly his five friends fell around him, screaming in pain. As the youth tried to run, he felt sharp stings on his right foot, left thigh, left hand and elbow.

“When I felt it hit my head, I thought I was going to die,” the Florence boy said Monday. “All I could think to do was throw myself on top of my friends to cover them up.”

Izquierdo, who was recuperating at home from minor gunshot wounds, was one of six victims--four teen-agers and two men in their 20s--wounded Sunday in a barrage of gunfire after four men in a tan Buick asked them what gang they belonged to.

“We said we don’t bang and they started to shoot,” Izquierdo said, his bandaged hand trembling as he recalled the bloody scene of his friends sprawled on the driveway. “I guess they thought we were in a gang. That’s the way it is out here.”

Three of the victims were teen-age girls who had met the others for hamburgers and dancing at the Miramonte Boulevard house of one of the girls. The group had gathered for a goodby party for one of the men, a Marine private who was to have returned to Camp Pendleton today after taking leave, according to Izquierdo and relatives at the house.

A 15-year-old girl was in stable condition at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said. A 13-year-old was hospitalized at Downey Community Hospital, but a spokeswoman declined to disclose her condition. Authorities did not release their names.

A 16-year-old girl, identified by relatives as Lorena Rodriguez, was in guarded condition at King. The shooting took place outside her home. The two other victims, Alfonso Vargas, 20, and Juan Chavez, 24, both of Los Angeles, were in stable condition at King.

No arrests have been made, Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Bill Linnemeyer said. Four men were believed to have been in the Buick, which passed slowly by the driveway party several times before at least one passenger opened fire about 9:50 p.m.

“The group denied gang involvement and they were shot,” Linnemeyer said. The shootings will be investigated by sheriff’s gang deputies to determine whether any of the victims or suspects had gang ties.

Carmen Castillo, 18, one member of the large extended family that lives at the Miramonte Boulevard house, said she had just shuttled five children indoors when the shooting erupted.

“I looked outside and saw everyone on the ground shouting and bleeding,” Castillo said. “The children had just been playing outside. We were all crying, we were so frightened.”

Faint bloodstains remained on the driveway where five children were playing Monday. The back window of an old station wagon was shattered.

Jesus Cervantes, 25, the brother of victim Rodriguez, said his sister was hit in the eye, leg and arm and appeared to be the most severely injured. His said his family has lived in the aging, stucco house for about eight years.

Neighbor Paul Aragon, 73, and his wife, Mary, 72, lamented the decline of the Florence district street, where they have grown increasingly fearful for their safety.

“When I heard the gunshots, I thought they were shooting into my house, it was so close,” Mary Aragon said. “It’s so scary. All this makes me sick. Almost every night after midnight, oh my God, we can hear the gunfire.”