Youths Held in Shooting May Be Charged as Adults

Two Westlake High School students arrested last week on charges of assault and attempted murder after a brawl that left three classmates with gunshot wounds may be prosecuted as adults, a deputy district attorney said Monday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Cardoza said he is considering a charge of attempted murder against one of the youths, a 17-year-old Thousand Oaks resident who is accused of shooting into a crowd of classmates and wounding three boys.

Cardoza said he also plans to file a charge of assault with a deadly weapon against the other boy, a 16-year-old from Thousand Oaks who was to have engaged in a fistfight last Thursday with a classmate in front of a crowd of fellow Westlake High students.

Police said the younger boy attacked another youth with a baseball bat or piece of wood after piling out of a car with a group of teen-agers who announced, “We’re the Asian Mafia!” and attacked the crowd.

Two boys suffered minor gunshot wounds, but a third, David Behling, a junior year football player, was hit by a bullet in the neck that fractured his skull. Behling remained hospitalized at Westlake Medical Center on Monday evening, where he is listed in satisfactory condition.

The two suspects in the attack--both Asian Americans--are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday morning in Ventura County Juvenile Court, and could be charged as adults, Cardoza said. “That is being contemplated at this point, but nothing’s definite,” he added.

Meanwhile, sheriff’s detectives are looking for two other youths, one from Thousand Oaks and one from the Los Angeles area, who may have been involved in the attack, said Sgt. David Paige.

“Ever since Friday night, things really haven’t changed,” Paige said. “There’s two people we really want to talk to. . . . We don’t know if they’re suspects yet.”

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Paige said detectives have confirmed that the Asian Mafia is the name of a Los Angeles gang. But they have no proof whether the attackers actually were gang members or merely claimed to be, he said.

Ventura County detectives are working with detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to get more information on the incident in Los Angeles County, including the unincorporated communities around Torrance, Paige said.

Westlake High School has been closed since Friday because of a semester break and Staff Development Day, but students will return to the campus this morning for the first time since the shooting.

Despite the violence that marked the end of the first semester Thursday, the school will not post additional security guards on campus today.

Assistant Supt. Richard W. Simpson said the school needs no additional security because “the situation that took place last Thursday did not take place on campus. It was after school, away from school.”

Instead, students will be greeted early in the day by a message from Westlake Principal Curt Luft, broadcast throughout the school, Simpson said.

The message will emphasize that students should report planned fights or confrontations to school officials, Simpson said.

Many Westlake High students knew about the fight between junior Curtis Simmons and a sophomore student planned for after school at North Ranch Park, Simpson said. Luft will stress to students that they do their classmates a favor when they report planned fights.

“We had an awful lot of students who knew that the incident was going to take place and didn’t let adults know that,” Simpson said.

Westlake High officials have already suspended three students involved in Thursday’s melee, including the two arrested Friday, Simpson said.

Tonight, Simpson will appear before the Thousand Oaks City Council to explain the district’s plans for combatting school violence, which range from expelling students who carry weapons to restricting the number of high school students who leave campus during lunch.