3 Teens Wounded in Fountain Valley Arcade Shooting

Three teen-agers were wounded in a drive-by shooting Friday night as they were walking around a recreation arcade, police said.

A gunman leaned from a car in the parking lot of the Family Fun Center and sprayed about seven bullets in the direction of the youths, who were about 25 feet away, police and witnesses said. Two cars then sped from the parking lot and drove north on Magnolia Street, police said.

The assailants remained at large Friday night.

The 7:45 p.m. shooting sent some patrons at the Family Fun Center running for cover, witnesses said.

“We’re lucky that a bunch of kids didn’t get killed,” said police Sgt. Darryl Nance.

Investigators said the shootings might have resulted from an earlier argument between the victims and the assailants.

By late Friday, police still had not identified the three male victims, ages 13, 15 and 17. They were hit with bullets from a semiautomatic handgun in the leg, hand and shoulder and were taken to an undisclosed hospital, Nance said.

One witness, Daniel Hulsey, 15, said he saw one car, loaded with about seven people, drive through the parking lot twice before the shooting began. He said he saw the shooting victims flash gang signs with their hands and then he heard the sound of gunfire.

A teen-age couple, who declined to give their names for fear of retaliation, said they saw the shooting victims stumble back toward a ticket booth after being hit. Then they saw the cars speed out of the parking lot and out of sight.

“At first we thought, are those shots? We weren’t sure,” said the 14-year-old girl. “There were some people asking, ‘What’s going on?’ Then you could see some people running to help” the fallen teen-agers, she said.

Undercover and uniformed officers regularly patrol the Family Fun Center, located on Recreation Circle. The arcade, which has bumper boats and batting cages, attracts large crowds of children, teen-agers and couples, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.

Nance said the center is not known for frequent gang activity, but police regularly patrol the area to try to prevent problems.

Police had only a sketchy description of the cars that fled the scene. They said one vehicle may be a teal-colored Honda, the other a small car that may be red.