3 Youths Shot Near School in San Diego : Violence: Racial conflict apparently sparked drive-by incident, police say. The victims are in good condition.

Three teen-agers were wounded in a drive-by shooting after an apparent racial confrontation involving gang members in front of a school Wednesday, authorities said.

The gunfire hit Tracy Jackson, an 18-year-old volunteer teacher’s aide, in the ribs; he was hospitalized in good condition, authorities said. The two other victims, a 13-year-old student wounded in the hand and a 17-year-old student shot in the foot, were also in good condition.

The shooting occurred about 2:55 p.m. as the Gompers Secondary School was letting out for the day in a working-class, racially mixed neighborhood in southeast San Diego. It apparently resulted from a racial altercation in which a group of about 10 white and African American students threw rocks at a pickup truck carrying two Asian students, according to San Diego Police Lt. Chris Ellis. Gang language was also “thrown around,” Ellis said.

The pickup truck then stopped, made a U-turn and drove past the group of rock-throwers, police said. One of the occupants fired at least eight .45-caliber rounds at the group and the truck sped away, police said.

Police suspect that the Asian youths are gang members but do not believe that the shooting victims are, officials said. Jackson and one other victim are African American and the third wounded youth is white, police said.

Interracial conflict between Asian, African American and Latino gangs in the neighborhood is not uncommon, Ellis said. But he said recent months have been calm. This is the first such incident outside the school and, despite the city’s growing gang problem, the worst shooting incident outside a San Diego school since 1979, officials said.

“This is barbaric,” said City Councilman George Stevens, who rushed to the scene. “This is insane. This can no longer be tolerated. Society has become nothing but violence, violence, violence.”

School board member Shirley Weber said the city schools “have got to do more in terms of interracial relationships. We have to learn to deal with the interracial conflicts that are there.”

The Gompers Secondary School serves seventh- through 12th-graders from the immediate neighborhood and other students who are bused in, according to Norma Trost, a spokeswoman for the city school district.