Shooting Near School Leaves 2 Boys Wounded

Two boys were seriously wounded Thursday when five men in a black pickup opened fire on a group standing across the street from a San Fernando continuation school, police said.

The boys had left Mission High School about 12:50 p.m. when the men drove past in the 11000 block of O’Melveny Avenue, said Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Monica Carazo.

“They were standing on the street corner across from the school when the suspects in the pickup drove by and began firing,” police spokesman Jack Richter said.

One student was hospitalized with a gunshot wound in his back, the other with a wound in his stomach, Carazo said.

Police were searching for the shooters late Thursday.

Few students witnessed the incident, Carazo said.

Mission High School serves about 60 students over age 16 with academic, behavioral or disciplinary problems.

A Francis Polytechnic High School freshman was shot in a gang-related incident in mid-December while walking with friends a few blocks from the Sun Valley campus.

In another recent incident, gunfire erupted earlier this month during an attempted robbery at Gardena High School, wounding two students and prompting a daylong campus lockdown.

*

Times staff writers Garrett Therolf and Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.