3 Students Shot Near High School

Sitting quietly in a hospital waiting room, the mother of one of three students shot Friday near San Fernando High School said that news of her son’s injury left her surprised yet calm.

It was only six weeks ago that a 12-year-old neighbor, Tiffany Dozier, was shot to death outside the Boys & Girls Club of San Fernando Valley in Pacoima, she said.

Between that recent experience and a desire to avoid becoming upset, she said, she was taking the shooting of her son in stride.

“Nothing makes sense to me anymore . . . ever since my neighbor got killed nothing amazes me anymore,” the Pacoima woman said, as she waited for her 17-year-old son, who suffered a wound in the buttock, to return from surgery.

‘But I didn’t think something like this would happen to my son.”

The hospital would not release the youth’s medical condition.

The other victims of the shooting were a 15-year-old boy, who was shot in the jaw, and a 17-year-old girl, who was shot in the chest, Los Angeles Police Sgt. George Khoury said.

The girl was treated and released from Northridge Hospital Medical Center, but both boys remained hospitalized Friday night.

The shooting occurred about 3:15 p.m., shortly after classes had recessed for the day, school district spokesman Shel Erlich said.

Two groups of suspected gang members argued outside the high school and then drove in two cars to the 14000 block of La Rue Street, where they got into a shootout, Khoury said.

Two girls, both innocent bystanders, were caught in the cross-fire when a bullet traveled through a sweater worn by one girl--without striking her--and hit her friend in the chest, Khoury said.

The cars sped off and when they reached the end of Oneida Avenue, a dead end, the occupants of a Buick Regal jumped out of the vehicle and fled.

The occupants of the second car, a blue Chevrolet, opened fire on the fleeing youths, striking two of them, Khoury said. The Chevrolet fled the scene after the shooting.

Two youths who had been passengers in the same car as the wounded boys were taken into police custody for questioning and three others from the same car fled the scene, Khoury said.