Gunfire Panics Campers; Gang Member Slain : Violence: Two other gang members are wounded in Angeles Forest melee. Visitors scramble into the woods for cover when shooting starts.

One gang member was fatally shot and two others were wounded after gunfire erupted in a crowded Angeles National Forest campground, sending panicked holiday campers scrambling into the woods for cover, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Monday.

“There were a lot of scared, screaming people running in every direction--men, women and children,” Sgt. Thomas Pavlich said of the shooting incident at the Heaton Flats campground on Sunday night. “There were a whole lot of shots fired, and people were just scattering and running into the woods. It was chaos for awhile.”

Two of the victims were taken by sheriff’s helicopter for treatment at County-USC Medical Center. Daniel Robles, 24, of Los Angeles, was shot at least once in the upper body and later died. Richard Samano, 19, also of Los Angeles, also was shot in the upper body and remained in critical condition in the intensive care unit Monday night, authorities said.

A third man was injured in the melee but escaped into the crowd, authorities said.

“We’re not sure if he was shot or stabbed, but witnesses said a man with his arm bandaged was seen running off into the woods,” Pavlich said.

Investigators on Monday arrested Raphael Lopez, 19, of Los Angeles along with two juveniles in the shooting. It was not clear whether any guns were found.

The trouble started about 7 p.m. Sunday at the isolated campground about 15 miles north of Azusa off California 39 when two rival gangs began trading verbal taunts and signals, investigators said. One gang member reportedly brandished a gun and a rival jumped him in an attempt to wrest the weapon from his grasp, said Diane Hecht, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

“Several gang members got involved in the struggle over the gun,” Hecht said, and one gang member apparently then fired the gun into a group of rival members.

Officers said they were not surprised by the incident.

“Every time we get a holiday or a real warm weekend, huge crowds go into that canyon,” Pavlich said. “And gang members are part of that crowd. Consequently, you get one group signing or insulting the other. And the fighting starts.”