EX-GANGSTERS SHOW WOUNDS.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

NEWHALL - About 30 Santa Clarita teens sat in rapt attention as former members of Los Angeles street gangs described how they were paralyzed, blinded, stabbed, set afire and run over by enemy members of rival gangs.

Held in a packed room at the Santa Clarita Boys & Girls Club in Newhall, the program was conducted by Teens on Target, a countywide initiative to reduce youth violence.

``You might look at a gang member and think: He's cool, he's riding in a nice car, selling drugs, he has a nice-looking girl,'' said Gilbert Salinas, the Teens on Target Program Coordinator who was paralyzed by a gunshot wound at 16. ``But this is the other side. If you are involved in the gang lifestyle, you will eventually pay a price. You will end up dead, in jail, paralyzed or blind.''

Though gang violence is not as severe in Santa Clarita as it is elsewhere in Los Angeles County, Salinas reminded the group that a 20-year-old member of a Newhall gang was gunned down by rival gang members in front of his apartment two years ago.

``If violence is looked at as a disease, you can learn the skills to stop it by not getting involved with gangs, using drugs or shooting at people,'' Salinas said during the Thursday afternoon program.

Jim Ventress, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club, conceded that the teens who most needed to hear the program were not in the audience. However, he said the teens who heard the horror stories would tell their friends, brothers and sisters, some of whom may be associated with gangs.

Thirteen-year-old Amores Bradford of Newhall said she was going to tell an older brother who hangs out with gang members about the Teens on Target program.

``I didn't realize how serious it was,'' she said.

Amores added that she also didn't realize girls could be the targets of gang violence.

Among Thursday's speakers were Jeanette Porcho, 30, who was paralyzed in a drive-by shooting, and Virginia Romeo, 24, who was blinded when she was shot in the face by a rival gang member.

``I grew up in a gang-infested part of L.A. and I always saw the gangs partying on the corners when I was going to school,'' Romeo recalled. ``I thought I wanted to grow up and not have to work and party all the time. So I got to know them, and at 12 I was jumped into the gangs.''

Romeo said she spent her teen years in a alcohol- and drug-induced haze, stealing cars and committing robberies to pay for her lifestyle. At 18, she committed a carjacking and was sent to prison. Four months after she got out of jail, on Jan. 6, 1994, she said she was shot in the face by an enemy gang member while walking home from a party.

She emerged from a coma three days later, no longer able to see and with the bullet permanently lodged in her head.

``I hated the world and I hated anyone who could see,'' she said. ``So I thought, I'm already half-way dead, I'm going to finish the job and get killed for my neighborhood. I went to jail three more times blind.''

For rival gang members, Romeo's blindness was an opportunity for revenge. She said she was kidnapped and beaten up several times by her enemies after she was shot.

Salinas, 25, said he also returned to the streets after he was paralyzed, and paid the price when his enemies capitalized on his new weakness.

``They tried to set me on fire, they threw me in a trunk, they stabbed me nine times and they ran over me in their car,'' Salinas said. ``Once you get in a gang, it's like suicide. Even if you get out, your enemies know who you are.''

Porcho, paralyzed in a drive-by shooting on Thanksgiving Day 14 years ago, said she was targeted because her brothers had murdered the 9-year-old brother of a rival gang member.

Since then, she said three of her five brothers were killed in gang warfare, and two are in prison.

``I'm going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life because of the choices other people made,'' she said. ``But I have chosen to get on with my life instead of letting the world take advantage of me.''

After the program, teens in the audience said they were shocked by the stories and didn't realize the gang lifestyle was so tough.

``It kind of knocked some sense into me,'' said Pedro Gonzalez, 15, of Newhall. ``It's sort of scared me because it can happen to anyone.''

A former gang member in the audience said the program touched him and made him realize how lucky he is to have escaped with his life.

Fifteen-year-old Jason Sewell said his family moved to Newhall two years ago to get away from his Pacoima gang members.

``I was looking for a family, but it was tough. There was a lot of pressure,'' he said. ``Now I stay as far away from gangs as I can. I don't want to get shot.''

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Photo:

(color) Gilbert Salinas, 25, paralyzed by a gunshot at 16, speaks to youths about the dangers of gang life Saturday in Newhall.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer