Gang Attacks 4 Girls in Park With Baseball Bats : Thousand Oaks: Teen-agers were left behind by their boyfriends after a fight broke out between rival groups, officials say.

Four teen-age girls from Thousand Oaks were assaulted with baseball bats in a park after the gang members they were with left them behind during an attack by a rival gang, authorities said Thursday.

The four girls, believed to be gang associates, sustained lacerations and bruises at the Stagecoach Inn Park in Newbury Park late Wednesday after their boyfriends apparently fled the scene, according to Ventura County Sheriff’s Detective Ernie Montagna.

“In a situation like that, there’s no chivalry,” Montagna said. “When you’re targeted by a rival gang, everyone becomes fair game. It doesn’t matter if you’re actually a gang member or not. The fact that you’re there makes you a target.”

Montagna said the melee began around 11:15 p.m. when the attacking gang discovered the other gang at the park at Ventu Park Road and Lynn Road. They first began yelling out gang slogans and then attacked, wielding baseball bats and wooden sticks. A total of 30 to 35 juveniles were involved in the fracas.

The short-lived fight left arriving deputies to tend to the four teen-agers. One of the injured girls was transported to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, where she was treated for an “egg-sized” lump on her forehead and a laceration requiring 10 stitches to close, authorities said. The other three were treated at the scene.

The girls’ names were not released by authorities because of their ages.

After the battering of the teen-agers, the attacking gang vandalized several nearby cars, smashing windows and slashing tires, Montagna said. Both gangs have been operating in the Conejo Valley area for nearly two years and have members attending high schools throughout the area, he said.

The gang members were gone by the time sheriff’s deputies arrived, authorities said.

A Thousand Oaks man, David R. Dixon, 22, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of child endangerment and obstructing emergency medical technicians. Authorities described him as a boyfriend of one of the victims.

No other arrests in the case had been made as of late Thursday. Dixon remained in custody at Ventura County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.

Thousand Oaks officials, who have prided themselves on their city being listed by the FBI as one of the safest in the nation with populations over 100,000, said Thursday that the city is grappling with what appears to be a growing problem with warring gangs.

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“Clearly, gang violence is escalating in the city and we have to do something about it,” Mayor Elois Zeanah said. “The problems we have encountered this year have put a tarnish on our city’s reputation. People who live here are not feeling as safe as they once did.”

On July 1, a 20-year-old Thousand Oaks man was stabbed in the neck following a rival gang’s assault of a party he was attending. Two weeks earlier, a gang shooting at another party in the city left an 18-year-old Camarillo man dead and a 19-year-old Thousand Oaks woman paralyzed.

Sheriff’s Department officials estimate the number of operating gangs in the city at three and the number of gang members at about 75. About 50 of those are considered by investigators to be “hard-core.”

Zeanah said she will be chairing a city crime task force committee meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the East Valley Sheriff’s Station. She welcomes the public to attend.

“Crime has got to become the city’s No. 1 priority,” Zeanah said. “We have to take a long, hard look at our existing programs and services and see what we can do to strengthen them.”

Echoing Zeanah was City Manager Grant Brimhall.

“I’m surprised they didn’t use AK-47s,” said an upset Brimhall. “This truly speaks to the cowardice of those who left the girls behind to be whaled upon.”

Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski said she believes the root social causes of gangs must be addressed hand-in-hand with stepped-up law enforcement.

“These kids are attracted to gangs because they act as surrogate families,” Zukowski said. “But what they don’t realize is that (they) are going from one dysfunctional family to another.”