1 dead in ‘gun battle’ at California park during school trip

RIALTO, Calif. (AP) — One person was shot and another wounded when a gun battle broke out in a Southern California park where elementary school children were playing during a field trip on Wednesday, authorities said. Neither victims were students.

The shooting on the basketball courts of Rialto’s Alec Fergusson Park was during the field trip for about 100 Fitzgerald Elementary School first- and second-graders, officials said.

The violence did not involve any students and was not connected to any of the district’s schools, the Rialto Unified School District said on Twitter.

Two groups of people were playing basketball around 1 p.m. when an altercation broke out, according to Lady Regla, a Rialto police spokesperson.

Rialto police Capt. Anthony Vega told reporters the dispute turned into a “gun battle” between them where multiple shots were fired at the park. “There was an exchange of gunfire,” he said.

At least one shooter remains at large in connection to what police believe was an isolated incident. The victims — who were described as two males — were found on the basketball courts, Regla said.

The city of Rialto is about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles.

More than two hours later, a boy was shot outside a high school during dismissal in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, police said. Authorities believe the shooting is gang-related.

It was not immediately clear whether the victim — only described as a juvenile male who was in stable condition— was a student at Grant High School in the San Fernando Valley.

The school went into lockdown, according to the Los Angeles School Police Department.

Police were called to the area around 3:30 p.m. following a report of an assault with a deadly weapon, according to Officer Matthew Cruz, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department.

No one has been taken into custody.