2 Students Charged With Assault in Shooting : Violence: Detectives still seek a third youth who may have fired a gun. Three Westlake High schoolmates were wounded.

A Ventura County prosecutor filed assault charges Tuesday against two Westlake High School students for a brawl last week that left three schoolmates with gunshot wounds, but he stopped short of charging the alleged shooter with attempted murder.

Detectives said Tuesday that they are still looking for a third youth they believe also shot into a crowd of football players and onlookers who had gathered at North Ranch Park on Thursday to watch a fistfight between two students.

And after Westlake High students returned to classes Tuesday without incident, Conejo Valley schools Assistant Supt. Richard Simpson told city leaders at a briefing on school violence that the Conejo Valley campuses are safe.

But he said officials know that gang-related assaults and tagging throughout the community are on the upswing.

“The trend toward increasing violence does not come as a surprise and we have been gearing up to respond,” Simpson told the Thousand Oaks City Council.

Simpson said school officials have set up committees in the past month to study ways to improve safety at the Conejo Valley Unified School District’s three high schools. In addition, he said, Conejo Valley schools are about to become a part of a national “We-Tip” program, which allows students to make anonymous reports on classmates carrying weapons or spoiling for a fight.

“Somehow, we need to enlighten students that part of citizenship is knowing when to share information with adults,” Simpson said.

Police have alleged that the two 16-year-old Thousand Oaks boys jumped out of a car Thursday with several friends who announced, “We’re the Asian Mafia,” and attacked the crowd with bats, lumber and gunshots. Both boys are Asian Americans.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Cardoza said he wants the two boys tried as adults. They are being held without bail at Ventura County juvenile hall pending arraignment this morning in Juvenile Court.

Cardoza said he will ask Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren today to rule that the two should be tried as adults.

If Perren grants that request after a hearing on the evidence, Cardoza said he will then file charges against the boys in Superior Court, where the two would be exposed to adult penalties if convicted.

“This was a very serious, very dangerous course of conduct that requires at least a very serious investigation as to whether or not it warrants the sanctions of adult court,” Cardoza said. “We’re very lucky that no one was killed.”

The older of the two 16-year-olds was charged with shooting at an occupied vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon and discharge of a firearm, Cardoza said.

“He’s accused of using a .25-caliber handgun that was involved in shooting at someone in a vehicle,” Cardoza said. The boy also faces a charge of possessing a gun on a school campus. Witnesses reported seeing him with a gun at Westlake High School last week before the shooting, Cardoza said.

But Cardoza said there is not enough evidence to prove that the boy, not identified because of his age, was trying to kill anyone.

The boy admitted firing shots that grazed one youth in a pickup truck, but he told police he was not trying to hit anyone, Cardoza said.

The younger of the two boys, who was to have taken part in the fistfight with a Westlake High School football player, faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. Police said he attacked another youth with a baseball bat or piece of wood.

Meanwhile, Ventura County sheriff’s detectives are still hunting for two more youths--a Los Angeles County resident who was in one of the cars and a Thousand Oaks teen-ager--who may have fired more shots into the crowd, said Sgt. Dave Paige.

Two youths suffered minor injuries in the attack. Officials said that a third, junior David Behling, was released Tuesday from Westlake Medical Center after being treated for a gunshot to the neck that fractured his skull.

Classes at Westlake High School resumed Tuesday for the first time since the shooting, which erupted after students had finished end-of-the-quarter final exams in preparation for a four-day weekend break.

Early in the day, students heard a lecture from Principal Curt L. Luft over the public-address system. Luft told students that as responsible young adults, they should have told administrators about rumors that a fight was brewing.

“No one took steps to stop what could have turned into a far greater tragedy--lifelong crippling injury to a fellow student, or even death,” Luft told students in the address.

Like most students interviewed as they left the sprawling 1,750-student school Tuesday afternoon, 15-year-old Kirsten Erickson said she feels safe there. The gunfire occurred off campus between a few individuals, Kirsten said.

“It’s not like it affected the whole school,” the ninth-grader said. “It was their choice to go and fight.”

Matt Spurka, 14, agreed that Westlake is a safe campus. School officials, he said, “always have people walking around everywhere with walkie-talkies.”

Mike Mini, a football player, said he is friends with the shooting victims. He was shocked at first to hear that weapons were brought into a minor dispute between two students who simply didn’t like each other.

“I see nothing wrong with a regular fight, but it seems like now you have to watch your back,” Mike, 16, said.

Kara Pickman, however, said most students viewed the violence as senseless.

“It’s stupid,” the 15-year-old said. “Why kill kids at 16 years old? It’s just dumb.”