2 SHOT OUTSIDE VALLEY SCHOOL ATTACK IS LATEST IN YOUTH VIOLENCE.

Byline: RICK COCA and SUE DOYLE Staff Writers

VAN NUYS -- Two teenage boys were shot and wounded Tuesday by a group of gunmen in a brazen attack outside Grant High School just moments after the end-of-school bell rang, the latest reminder of escalating youth violence in the San Fernando Valley.

A 16-year-old Grant High student was shot in the leg and a 17-year-old former student was shot in the foot about 3:15 p.m. near the school on the corner of Oxnard Street and Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

Students, visibly shaken by the violence, reported hearing several shots as they left the school.

``I just walked out and saw two guys on the (ground) with blood,'' said one girl, whose mother asked that she not be identified.

Another teenage girl sobbed into her cell phone, barely able to explain why she was late getting home as she tried to describe the attacks to her mother.

A bald, male Latino in his teens -- wearing a dark, long-sleeve shirt -- along with three other young men, attacked the two boys, who were Latino, said Martha Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

It wasn't clear whether one or more of the four assailants shot at the boys. The four attackers fled in an unknown vehicle, Garcia said.

Although the attack appeared to be gang-related, Garcia said it was too early to say.

Quick response

Police arrived within minutes of the shooting, locking down the area and sending students back on campus. Parents coming to pick up their kids at the main entrance were sent to the west side of the school and told to wait for students there.

Facing one of the first school shootings since taking over the Los Angeles Unified School District late last year, Superintendent David Brewer III raced to the campus to speak to school officials, students, parents and police.

``The schools are safe; it's the streets outside of our schools that we're concerned with,'' Brewer said. ``This is a community issue. We as a community, we need to partner and start to deal with the systemic issues that involve our children in gangs. Violence isn't macho. Nonviolence is macho.''

This is the second shooting outside a school in the San Fernando Valley in the past four months. In September 2006, a 16-year-old boy was killed outside Birmingham High School during a gunfight with two other teenagers.

Just 10 days into the new year, the San Fernando Valley's gang-related violence appears to be keeping pace with last year, which saw at least a 40 percent increase in gang violence.

On Saturday, a 16-year-old boy was shot dead in broad daylight as he walked down the street near Sherman Way and Van Nuys Boulevard. Police believe it was a gang-related homicide.

30 percent increase

In 2006, there were 48 gang-related homicides in the Valley, a nearly 30 percent increase from 2005.

``It is street violence and a continuation of an increase that we saw last year,'' said Michel Moore, deputy LAPD chief in charge of the San Fernando Valley.

Moore added that violent attacks involving young people, some as young as 12, are on the rise. To combat the deadly spike in violence, Moore said, police are working with the community, schools and the San Fernando Valley Coalition on Gangs, and federal and probationary officials to create an operations plan for 2007 that will be made public soon.

``Beyond the tragedy for the victims and their families, this is a tragedy for our city,'' Los Angeles City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said in a statement after Tuesday's shooting.

``Our schools should be the safest and most secure areas in our entire city so our children can focus on learning, not dodging bullets.''

Student Alex Barturen said students have had to take a cautious approach to everyday encounters to avoid becoming victims of the violence.

``I used to live across the street from an apartment (where gang members gathered),'' he said. ``And every day they would ask me, `Where are you from?' And I would say, `Nowhere.'''

rick.coca(at)dailynews.com

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