Youths Stab 3 Football Players, Injure 4th at Lynwood High

Two youths vaulted a fence at Lynwood High School on Wednesday afternoon and stabbed three football players before injuring a teammate who came to their aid, witnesses said.

The witnesses said players chased one of the assailants and tackled him, disarming him and holding him until Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies arrived.

The other attacker fled to his car, according to the witnesses, who declined to be identified. They said other team members surrounded the vehicle, smashing out the windows and holding the suspect there until a security guard pulled him from the car and handcuffed him to a fence.

Sheriff’s deputies said the attack, apparently gang-related, was thought to have stemmed from an earlier altercation in which a young man beat up a member of a rival gang. Deputies said the two suspects, friends of the gang member who was beaten, went to the school in search of the teen-ager who had done the beating.

The suspects never found that teen-ager, deputies said, but instead they attacked the football players.

Treated at hospitals for stab wounds were Larry Walker, 18, Kareem Edwards, 17, and Larry Goodwin, 16. A fourth player, Michael Williams, was treated for injuries suffered when he was struck in the head with a metal object. Deputies said none of the injuries was thought to be life-threatening. The 17-year-old suspects were jailed at a juvenile detention facility.