Gang Members Attack Ventura School Bus

A busload of Buena High School students was terrorized Wednesday when youths--apparently Montalvo gang members--tried to smash their way on board with a tire iron in the middle of traffic, authorities said.

The after-school attack sent at least two students--a freshman girl and her older brother who struggled to protect her--to the hospital with cuts from shattered glass.

And it triggered strong reaction from community leaders, who are fighting to curb gang violence.

“It just rocks me, and I can’t believe it,” school board member Velma Lomax said. “I would hope to God it’s isolated.”

No arrests had been made late Wednesday as police scoured the city for the black Chevrolet Blazer carrying the suspected assailants. The injured students--15-year-old Maribel Cota and her 16-year-old brother Jaime, a sophomore--were treated at Ventura County Medical Center and driven home.

But for a few moments Wednesday, the 60 youngsters riding to homes in the Saticoy area were swept with fear, some kicking frantically at the doorway to keep the attackers at bay.

Authorities and witnesses gave the following account:

The Blazer circled Buena after school, with the three youths inside yelling profanities and flashing gang signs at students waiting for the bus.

About 3:15 p.m, the school bus pulled out, stopping for a red light at the busy intersection of Telegraph Road and Victoria Avenue. The Blazer stopped behind them.

The young men jumped out of the Blazer, yelling “Montalvo!”

At one point, the group unleashed a pit bull from the car, adding further menace, several students said.

One of the attackers--each of whom had close-cropped haircuts and baggy clothes--charged an emergency door at the rear of the bus and ripped it open. He tried to climb on board.

That is when Jaime Cota scrambled to the back of the bus and grabbed the door, yanking it shut. Maribel, his sister, was sitting in the seat next to the emergency door.

But the attacker pulled the door open again, spurring other students to join the battle. With some kicking at the attacker and others pulling hard on the door, they managed to fight him off and shut the emergency exit once more.

Then, authorities said, the terror escalated: One of the assailants grabbed a tire iron from the Blazer and smashed the emergency door window. Shattered glass and a chorus of screams shot through the bus.

“The bus driver was screaming, ‘Put the windows up!’ ” student Mayra Chavez said.

The attackers finally got back in the Blazer and sped off.

The bus then pulled into the McDonald’s restaurant parking lot and the students waited about an hour before another bus came to take them home.

Still dazed, Jaime Cota sought out his sister to see if she was all right. He began to feel a sharp sting near his eye.

“I didn’t know I had a cut on my head until my sister told me ‘your forehead’s bleeding,’ ” he said.

Maribel also was treated at Ventura County Medical Center after glass apparently scratched her eye.

Police are calling the incident gang-related. They said the Montalvo youths apparently were targeting Saticoy students on the bus.

The attack follows a string of gang incidents. Last spring, in the city’s normally safe east end, a 13-year-old girl was hit in the arm by gunfire while walking home from school. And this month, Ventura police have seen three other gang attacks, including a shooting that left an 18-year-old man in critical condition.

Lomax, the school board member, vowed a full review of the incident.

“Safety of children is absolutely first,” she said. “We have to look at why did this happen, how did it happen and what can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We will take immediate action to find out exactly what the cause of it was.”

Meanwhile, Ventura Councilman Jack Tingstrom called for an all-out gang crackdown.

“It’s not going to stop,” Tingstrom said. “It’s going to keep going until we take a stand and do something about it. These gangs are just going to make it hell for all of us.”

But at the Cota home in Saticoy, Remedios Cota was just happy her children were all right.

“I don’t hold it against the school because it wasn’t their fault,” said the mother, a disabled lemon factory worker. “I feel better now that they’re home.”

And despite the attack, Jaime Cota said he and his sister would continue to use the bus. “That’s my only ride home,” he said.

Correspondent Robert Gammon contributed to this report.