YOUTH VIOLENCE HEATS UP POLICE OFFICIALS FEAR 'VERY BUSY' SUMMER.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Gang members in the Antelope Valley are not only becoming more bold, they're growing more violent, investigators say.

Since January, three young men have been shot and wounded, another was stabbed and a sleeping toddler was hit by a shotgun pellet in a drive-by shooting that targeted the wrong home.

``If these recent incidents are any indication of what we'll see this summer, we're going to be very busy,'' said Sgt. Derek Yoshino, who heads the Operation Safe Streets bureau assigned to Palmdale and its unincorporated areas.

Gang investigators say recent crimes are evidence of the increasing violence among gangs.

In February, a 17-year-old Palmdale boy described as a gang member stabbed another teen after getting off a bus, then was shot and wounded minutes later in a gunbattle with deputies.

Two weeks ago, a Palmdale gang member was shot in the neck by a Val Verde gang member after a dispute.

In retaliation, the wounded gangster's friends went after the Val Verde gunman. When they shot at him from a car, he returned fire, striking one of the assailants in the ankle, deputies said.

On March 12, in a shooting believed linked to the retaliation, a 19-year-old Palmdale man was wounded while walking with his girlfriend on 29th Street on Avenue S.

Officials said these incidents mirror the recent gang wars in Los Angeles. The timing and motives appear very similar: all retaliation shootings.

Officials say they don't think there is any link between the Los Angeles and Antelope Valley crimes.

But they say they are unsure why the severity of gang crimes has increased in the last few weeks, except in speculation that gangsters may believe they won't be caught.

The main difference, officials say, between Antelope Valley gangs and Los Angeles gangs is that local gangsters often join with members of gangs they would fight if they were in Los Angeles.

``Down below, you'd have 50 or 60 members of one gang together,'' said OSS team member Chris Keeling. ``Up here you have one, two or maybe three. So they run with members of other gangs who would be their rivals if they were down below.''

Another Antelope Valley factor is the lack of strife over ``turf.''

In Los Angeles, much gang violence occurs when gang members enter neighborhoods controlled by other gangs. In the Antelope Valley, members of a gang rarely live in the same neighborhood or even the same city.

``You'll have one guy living on 47th Street and Avenue S while another lives on 11th Street East,'' said Sgt. Larry Mead, who heads the OSS team that serves Lancaster and its unincorporated areas. ``So we really haven't seen those problems with 'turf' up here.''