BOY HURT WHEN GANG MEMBERS OPEN FIRE AT SWEET 16 PARTY.

Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer

Gang members who were asked to leave a sweet 16 birthday party sprayed the front of a Woodland Hills home with gunfire, shooting a male teen-age guest through the arm, police and residents said Sunday.

The identity of the injured teen was not available, but his wound was not life-threatening, said Los Angeles police Lt. Roger Bowis of the West Valley station.

John McCauley said he was stunned that his daughter's birthday party turned violent.

"It's unbelievable, a very sobering thing," McCauley said. "Things got out of hand very quickly."

After reading about the party from a flier, gang members started showing up at the home in the 22900 block of Calabash Street about 10 p.m. Saturday, Bowis said.

"We didn't know if we would have more trouble letting them in or turning them away," McCauley said. "Finally we let them in. It's tough keeping people out."

McCauley said a production group hired to throw the party provided bouncers and a metal detector, and partygoers were "patted down."

Still, a fight developed and the gang members were asked to leave.

As they drove away, the gang members fired a shot through the window into a room full of about 80 teen-agers from Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks where the daughter attends school, officials said.

Then, neighbors said they saw the car return and spray gunfire at partygoers outside.

"They panicked; I panicked," McCauley said.

Teens ripped off window screens and dove into bushes, kicked down the back fence and fled through a neighbor's gate.

A neighbor who witnessed the shooting, but did not want to be identified, said most of the youths were able to duck behind cars to evade gunfire, but one was hit.

"This poor kid was caught out in the street. He took a shot in the arm and started screaming," the neighbor said. "I was already on the phone with police and I told them, 'You'd better send a lot of cars real quick.' "

A female friend of the wounded boy drove him to a nearby 7-Eleven, said Elliot Kramsky, a resident in the area who had stopped at the store.

"The girl and boy ran into the store, and he started screaming that he'd been shot," Kramsky said.

Kramsky called 911, then held a towel to the boy's wound until paramedics arrived.

"This is all very shocking," Kramsky said Sunday. "Things like this don't happen in this neighborhood."

Gang members found the party after fliers were distributed randomly, Bowis said.

"That's not a good idea. You have no control who shows up at the house," Bowis said.

Several neighbors echoed Kramsky's concerns, saying they were stunned by the night's violence.

McCauley said his family moved into the home only a few months ago, and his daughter still attends Westlake High School.

He believes he has nothing to apologize for.

"I don't think I have to mend any fences with my neighbors," he said. "No one wanted this to happen. There was nothing we could do."