2 Cities Start Patrol of Gang Hot Spots : Crime: After two recent shootings, a sheriff’s team begins ‘aggressively’ covering San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.

In the wake of the area’s second gang-related shooting within a week, members of the Sheriff’s Department Gang Enforcement Team on Friday began “aggressively patrolling” trouble spots in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano, officials said.

“I can tell you that we will not stand for this type of violence,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Davis, San Clemente’s chief of police services.

The special deployment, which consists of eight sheriff’s gang enforcement deputies assigned to each city, was ordered after a 17-year-old suspected gang member was shot in the chest during a drive-by attack late Thursday night, Davis said.

The unidentified teen-ager, who was listed in stable condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center on Friday, was one of two youths who witnessed a gang-related shooting on Halloween night that left a 16-year-old boy with a wounded kneecap.

The unidentified victim in the Halloween night shooting had been among four adults and six juveniles arrested in connection with an Oct. 15 attack on 17-year-old San Clemente High School student Steve Woods. Steve was critically injured when he was speared in the head with a paint-roller rod. The 17-year-old was later released because of insufficient evidence.

“These shootings are not in any way, shape or form connected to the Woods incident,” Davis said. “What this is is rival gang violence. We believe the attackers are rival gang members.”

A gang from San Juan Capistrano is believed to be responsible for both shootings this week, Davis said.

The incident Thursday occurred about 11 p.m. in front of a fast-food restaurant near Camino de Los Mares and the San Diego Freeway.

“The victim and a 15-year-old male passenger were getting out of their car when another car containing (two males) drove up alongside of them and fired four rounds,” Davis said. “One of the shots struck the driver in the left side of the chest.”

The 15-year-old, who was not injured, was the other witness to the Halloween night shooting, Davis said.

The assailants were driving a black 1988 Honda that had been reported stolen earlier in the day in Mission Viejo. After the shooting, the two abandoned the car and ran from the area. No arrests have been made.

The victim was taken by friends to Good Samaritan Hospital in San Clemente, then later transferred to the hospital in Mission Viejo.

“We believe this shooting has a direct relationship to what happened on Halloween,” Davis said.

The gang unit’s special patrol, which is expected to last well into next week, will have deputies concentrating on places where gang members have a tendency to call their turf or areas where they often congregate, Davis said.

Shortly after Woods was attacked, a similar patrol was initiated in San Clemente for a six-day period. Deputies conducted 85 field interviews, which resulted in five felony arrests and 25 misdemeanor arrests on various charges, including weapons violations.

“Anyone looking for trouble is going to find it, but they are going to find it with us,” Davis said.