ANAHEIM : Gang Melee Leaves 2 Teens Hospitalized

Two youths were reported in serious condition at a local hospital Wednesday after a melee involving two gangs, police said.

The fight, which occurred at Yorba Regional Park in Anaheim on Tuesday, stemmed from a confrontation earlier that day at Esperanza High School in Anaheim involving two youths who are members of rival gangs, said Sgt. Craig Hunter of the Anaheim police gang enforcement detail.

Hunter said in a prepared statement that an investigation revealed the earlier confrontation at school “escalated after school hours when members of two Asian gangs met near the park.”

More than a dozen youths were involved, he said.

“An exchange of words quickly developed into a fight,” which resulted in one of the youths being stabbed and another severely beaten, Hunter said.

Police were summoned to the park and broke up the fight. Both victims were taken to Western Medical Center-Anaheim, where they were both reported in serious condition, he said.

The two injured youths--whose names and ages were not released--were not students at Esperanza High School, nor were they the same two who had argued earlier at the school, police said.

Three juveniles were arrested at the park and taken to Orange County Juvenile Hall.

Hunter said that of the 13 or so people involved in the melee, “four were students of Esperanza.” He said the school admitted as much to police on Wednesday.

Esperanza High officials, however, said no one involved in the fight at the park was a student at their school and that there had been no confrontations between gang members on school grounds Tuesday.

Milly Fernald, dean of students at the school, said she had received from Anaheim police a report on the fight and found “that it did not involve any of our students.”

She also said there are no gangs at the school. “We do have some kids who may identify with one of the gangs” mentioned in the report but there is no full-blown gang activity in the 2,500-student school, which primarily serves the Yorba Linda community, she said.