Alleged Gang Members Attack High School Bus

A busload of Ventura high school students was terrorized Wednesday when youths--apparently gang members--tried to smash their way on board with a tire iron and a baseball bat in the middle of a busy intersection, authorities said.

The after-school attack sent at least two Buena High School students--a 16-year-old boy and his 15-year-old sister--to the hospital with cuts from shattered glass.

No arrests had been made late Wednesday as police searched for the black Chevrolet Blazer carrying the assailants. The injured students were treated at Ventura County Medical Center and released.

The assault began about 3:15 p.m., when the three youths in the Blazer began yelling profanities and flashing gang signs at students waiting for the bus. When the bus, carrying about 60 students, pulled out and then stopped at a nearby intersection, one of the youths from the Blazer charged an emergency door, ripped it open and tried to climb aboard.

Several students, including the two who were injured, managed to fight him off and shut the emergency door. Then one of the assailants grabbed a baseball bat from the car and smashed open the emergency door window, sending shattered glass flying. At one point, the youths unleashed a pit bull from the car, some students said.

“The bus driver was screaming, ‘Put the windows up!’ ” student Mayra Chavez said. The attackers finally got back in the Blazer and sped off.

Ventura school board member Velma Lomax said officials planned to investigate the incident. “I would hope to God it’s isolated,” 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.”