GLENDALE : 4 Sought in Attack on 19-Year-Old Man

Police said Monday they are seeking four teen-agers who attacked a 19-year-old Glendale man at a gas station Sunday night, kicking, beating and shooting at him before they sped away in two cars.

The victim, who was treated at a local hospital for cuts to his head and arm after the attack, pulled into a Shell station at 625 N. Pacific Ave. about 11 p.m. and was approached by one of the teen-agers, who were sitting in their cars on the opposite side of the gas pump.

Police said the teen-ager shouted the name of a “tagging crew,” or graffiti-spraying gang, and took off his shirt and challenged the victim to a fight, police said.

During the fight, two more of the teen-agers entered the brawl, one of whom had a shank. The victim wrestled the weapon away and managed to slash at his attackers with it. But the fourth teen-ager then entered the fray with a gun, believed to be a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol, police said.

The gun-toting youth fired two shots at the ground, then two shots at the victim’s car, destroying the front and rear windshields. Then he fired a fifth shot at the victim, which missed, police said.

According to the police report, the victim told officers that he then dived onto the ground, and the teen-ager with the gun walked alongside him and pulled the trigger, but the gun was empty.

Then all four youths kicked and beat the man as he lay on the ground. The victim managed to get up and run to the clerk’s window to ask for help, police said.

The suspects were described as Latino, ages 16 to 18 and 5 feet, 4 inches to 5 feet, 8 inches in height. Two were in a red Toyota Celica convertible and the other two were riding in a white full-sized American car, possibly a Chevrolet, with chrome Dayton rims, police said.