Two Youths Arrested in Shooting of Students : Crime: One of the boys is charged with attempted murder in the off-campus attack that injured three Westlake High classmates.

Ventura County sheriff’s detectives arrested two Westlake High School students Friday for their roles in an after-school brawl that led to the shooting of three classmates the day before.

A 17-year-old Thousand Oaks boy, believed to have fired the shots, was charged with attempted murder after deputies stopped his car at 3 p.m. because it resembled a car seen at the melee near North Ranch Park on Thursday, Sgt. David Paige said.

Another 17-year-old Thousand Oaks boy was arrested earlier Friday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

Witnesses said that boy was one of two youths who were supposed to take part in a much-anticipated fistfight that had drawn a crowd of at least 30 Westlake High students to the park. But instead of taking part in a fistfight, the boy arrived with three carloads of friends, police said. Some, including the boy, attacked the crowd with sticks and bats, and at least one youth fired shots, investigators and witnesses said.

Investigators said they have not ruled out the possibility that there was more than one shooter, and they said there may be more arrests.

Both of the suspects arrested Friday were booked into Ventura County Juvenile Hall. They were not identified because of their age.

Paige stopped short of labeling the attack, which left one youth hospitalized and two others with minor injuries, as racially or gang-motivated.

But Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp confirmed witnesses’ reports that the assailants piled out of the three cars and announced, “We’re the Asian Mafia” before attacking the crowd--made up mostly of white football players and their friends--with lumber, bats and at least one .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun.

Both boys arrested Friday are Asian Americans, Paige said.

Detectives broadened their search for the other assailants Friday morning into Los Angeles County, Kemp said.

“I can safely say from preliminary information that these (youths) were not from Ventura County,” Kemp said. Twelve to 15 officers are working on the case, she said.

As detectives kept digging and Conejo Valley Unified School District officials solidified 3-week-old plans to study rising teen-age crime, one of the victims of Thursday’s fracas remained hospitalized.

David Behling lay in a bed at Westlake Medical Center in stable condition, the base of his skull fractured by a bullet.

*

He was still groggy from sedation one day after doctors removed the bullet from his neck, but he was expected to recover fully and be released within a day or two, said the boy’s father, Dick Behling.

“It’s a miracle, it really is,” Behling said. “He’s very lucky, all things considered.”

Behling said he has not had much time to talk with his son about the shooting, but he believes the teen-agers went to the park expecting to see nothing more than an old-fashioned, score-settling display of fisticuffs.

“Kids out here are probably pretty naive,” Behling said. “They still think they can have it out with their fists and it’s settled, but it just isn’t that way anymore. It’s a hard lesson to learn.”

Speaking only three days after a 14-year-old student was stabbed to death at a Simi Valley junior high school, Behling said youths and community leaders alike must wake up to the reality of teen-age violence. They should drill anti-violence messages into children at a young age, as the popular DARE program urges them to resist drug use, he said.

“Anybody who thinks that we live on an island is deluding themselves,” Behling said. “Metal detectors and frisking kids isn’t going to do it. . . . It might help, but it’s going to take more than that.”

Conejo Valley Unified School District Supt. Jerry Gross said school officials are not hiding their heads in the sand.

The last 18 months have seen a rise in graffiti and gang-related attacks, though most have been away from school campuses, Gross said.

“We’re not denying that we have an emerging problem with violence and gangs in this community,” Gross said.

Before Thursday’s shootings, school officials had begun looking for gaps in campus security and drafting a wish list of improvements for the school board to consider in coming weeks.

District officials are considering buying video cameras to beef up surveillance and cellular telephones to connect campus supervisors with help, Gross said.

“We’re safe, but there is a feeling that we need to be ever-watchful,” he said.

School board President Dolores Didio said community and school leaders must work together to establish a “zero tolerance” policy for gangs. She has become worried in recent years by the proliferation of graffiti and other signs of gang incursion into Thousand Oaks, Didio said.

“The frustration is not knowing exactly what to do to put the skids on it before it becomes a major problem like it has in other communities,” Didio said.

School board member Bill Henry said he hopes school officials will not rush to act without having information about the incident. He pointed out that the shooting occurred off campus.

“I’m not sure that every problem is a school problem,” Henry said. “Schools are parties to it, but I’m not sure every problem has schools as its derivation.”

Cindy Simmons, the mother of the football player who was to take part in the fistfight, said Friday she has persuaded police to beef up patrols near her house because she fears retaliation against her son, Curtis.

“Physically, he’ll be fine,” she said. “He’s pretty upset, pretty scared, and he has a lot of guilt feelings. Of course, he feels like his actions hurt his friends.”

Yet despite the damage and fear arising from Thursday’s violence, one of the victims said he and his friends will not be deterred from defending themselves if necessary.

Westlake High junior Scott Smith, 16, treated for a shoulder wound after the shooting, said Curtis “was challenged. He’ll fight when he’s provoked.”

*

The two visited David Behling on Friday and were reassured to see him smile once or twice at their jokes, Scott said.

“Dave’s a tough guy,” Scott said. “He can handle it.”

If threatened, Scott said, he would risk his life again. Others were scared, “but I’m calm,” he said.

“Even if I knew I was going to get shot, I’d do it again in a second for my friends. So would Curtis,” Scott said.

School officials should not overreact by using metal detectors to screen for weapons, Scott said.

“Our school is safe, it’s a good academic school,” Scott said. “So in school, you’re safe. But out of school, there’s nothing much (adults) can do about it. If somebody wants to get a gun and start shooting, they’ll do it.”

Reed is a Times staff writer and Day is a Times correspondent.