GLENDALE : 2 Hurt, 2 Arrested During Gang Brawl

Fistfights between an Armenian gang from Glendale and a Latino gang from Burbank and Hollywood resulted in injuries to two youths and the arrests of two others, police said.

Two teen-agers received minor injuries Thursday after the rival gangs brawled with one another in front of Hoover High School, police said.

Police arrested a 17-year-old student from Hollywood’s Fairfax High School for battery and a 17-year-old Allan F. Daily High School student for assault with a deadly weapon in the incident.

The Fairfax student was released to his mother’s custody late Thursday; the other student was sent to Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, Glendale Police Officer Rodney Brooks said. Police are searching for a third teen-age suspect.

About 50 gang members mingled with Hoover High students in front of the school prior to the fight around 3 p.m., police said.

Fistfights broke out between the Latino and Armenian gang members after Latino gang members drove in front of Hoover High and taunted the Armenians with racial slurs, police spokesman Sgt. Lief Nicolaisen. said.

A Latino gang member was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon after he chased a 17-year-old Armenian gang member and started hitting him with a broken crutch, police said. The Armenian student was taken to Glendale Adventist Medical Center, treated for cuts and bruises and released.

The Fairfax High teen-ager was arrested for battery after he opened the door to a police car where the first suspect was sitting and started kicking him, Nicolaisen said.

The second teen-ager injured in the incident did not require treatment for bruises received when Latino gang members chased him down Glenwood Road and struck him several times on the back, police said.

Police said these rival gang members tangle because the Latino gang claims specific city blocks as its own while Armenian gang members regard the city of Glendale as theirs.