Boy Wounded in Shooting Outside Glendale School

A 15-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded Thursday during a gang fight on the street outside Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale, authorities said.

About 55 students were on campus at the time of the shooting, which disrupted an on-campus tennis match, but there were no other injuries, police said.

The altercation apparently started as a fistfight between two gangs in the faculty parking lot, and erupted into gunfire after one of the youths pulled a firearm out of his car, said Sgt. Rick Young of the Glendale Police Department.

The victim, identified by police as Avetis “Avo” Demerchyan, a Hoover High junior, was hit in the stomach and transported to County-USC Medical Center, where he underwent surgery and was listed in critical condition late Thursday.

Police said several Hoover High boys got into an argument with Demerchyan during lunch and commanded him to meet them after school “to talk.”

“I feel we have a very safe school,” said Co-Principal Kevin E. Welsh. “But obviously a parent hearing something like this is going to panic.”

Welsh said Hoover High School had recently joined a growing number of Los Angeles County campuses employing metal detectors and random locker checks to control youth violence.

Glendale authorities said Thursday’s shooting was the city’s first so close to a school.

The fight broke out during a tennis match between Hoover High and Village Christian School from Sun Valley. At the sound of the shots, players and fans hit the deck. The competition was postponed.

Gang violence in Glendale has been escalating in recent months, police said.

“Six months ago the fistfights turned into gunshots,” said Glendale police spokesman Chahe Keurojhelian.

Two Latino gangs whose territories run along the Burbank-Glendale city line have been trading retaliatory drive-by shootings since March, Keurojhelian said. Three youths have been injured.

Young said the two gangs involved in Thursday’s shooting were probably Armenian, and their dispute was unrelated to the inter-city rivalry.

Keurojhelian said police have detained several witnesses, including the occupants of a minivan and a BMW, “who may turn out to be suspects.” An investigation was continuing.