Dorsey High School Student Shot in Apparent Gang-Related Attack

A Dorsey High School student was shot Monday, possibly by rival gang members, as he stood near the school’s playing field, police officials said.

The incident is the second shooting of a student near Dorsey High this month, and threatens to jeopardize a football game between Dorsey and Banning High School on Friday afternoon. Last week, Banning’s coach, citing fears of violence, said his team would not show up for the game if it were not moved from Dorsey’s home field at Jackie Robinson Stadium to a neutral site.

The 16-year-old youth, whose name was not released, was in stable condition at a hospital after being shot once in the head, Los Angeles Police Lt. Joe Germain said. Police would not name the hospital as a precaution against possible gang retaliation.

The shooting occurred about 11 a.m. as the teen-ager stood outside a fence that encloses Dorsey High’s practice field in the 4700 block of Rodeo Road.

A friend of the victim said he was walking home from the store when he spotted the teen-ager standing with another youth and talking to a group of students on the other side of the fence.

A gray Buick Regal or Oldsmobile, heading west on Rodeo Road, approached the youth, the friend said. The car made a U-turn, and one of its two occupants pointed a gun out of the window. “They said (expletive) slobs, and shot,” striking the 16-year-old before speeding away, he said.

The witness said he ran across the street to apply pressure to the youth’s wound, while students threw him towels over the fence to be used to stop the bleeding.

Though the incident appeared to be gang-related, the motivation for the shooting is under investigation, Germain said. However, friends of the victim said the youth belonged to a neighborhood gang, and that the word slobs is a derogatory term used by rivals.

The friend who witnessed the shooting said the wounded teen-ager was trying to break his gang ties. “He always told me: ‘Man, I’m not doing this no more. It’s too dangerous,’ ” said the friend, who graduated from Dorsey last year. “He said he wasn’t going to gang bang” anymore.

Monday’s shooting comes less than a month after another Dorsey student was shot and wounded during a football game at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The student was not seriously hurt in the gang-related shooting, authorities said.

Dick Browning, assistant superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s senior high division, said Monday that security will be beefed up for Friday’s game and that if Banning does not show up, it will lose by forfeit. Monday’s shooting “does not change our stand,” Browning said, adding that nine police cars will patrol the area during Friday’s event.

Banning’s football coach, Joe Dominguez, could not be reached for comment Monday. But a school official said that a decision should be reached by Wednesday on whether Banning will play.

Jerelene D. Wells, Dorsey High principal, said the game should be allowed to go on and emphasized that the shootings did not happen on the campus, which officials try to keep secure.

“We tell students, if you’re involved in ‘special groups,’ keep that outside. We’re here for education,” said Wells, who added that school security will be temporarily increased in the wake of Monday’s shooting.

The shooting victim, a 10th grader at Dorsey, had not been at school in two weeks, Wells said, and was sporting his gang colors Monday.

In the meantime, outside the school, teen-agers who said they were gang members talked about retaliation.

“There ain’t no use in crying because it always happens,” said one 17-year-old who attends nearby View Park High School. “What’s the use in crying when you know the other gang is going to come back and do what they got to do? I’m down with whatever goes down.”