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6 Shot After Leaving Vegas School Bus

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[December 12, 2007]  LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Assailants shot six young people Tuesday at a school bus stop, wounding two critically, in a midday attack that followed a fight over a girl, authorities said.

School police arrested three teenagers in the fight that happened hours before the shooting, Sheriff Doug Gillespie said. Investigators were still seeking two gunmen, who were believed to have fled on foot from the scene of the shooting, a working class neighborhood of northeast Las Vegas.

An 18-year-old man was in critical condition and a 17-year-old boy was upgraded to serious condition, both with gunshots to the torso, said Cheryl Persinger, a University Medical Center spokeswoman.

Four people, including at least two boys and a girl who are under 18, were treated for gunshot injuries to their arms and legs and released, she said. All four are students at Mojave High School who had just stepped off the bus, which was coming from the school, police said.

Authorities would not release any other information about the two victims who were still hospitalized late Tuesday, including whether they were students or had been on the bus.

Earlier Tuesday police had said all the wounded were on the bus.

Investigators initially looked into the possibility of gang involvement, but Gillespie said it appeared the shootings were the second stage of a confrontation over a girl.

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Gillespie called the bus stop shooting "a carryover from what took place. This is not a random act."

Those arrested after the school fight are about 16, Clark County School District police Lt. Ken Young said. Mojave had some 2,300 students last year, about evenly divided among blacks, whites and Hispanics, according to district materials.

The shooting occurred just before 2 p.m., a couple of blocks from two elementary schools. Both were locked down temporarily but reopened in about an hour, district spokesman Michael Rodriguez said.

Investigators said they found 9 mm and .45-caliber shell casings at the scene.

Archie Gorai, 22, who lives about a block from the site of the shooting, said he heard about eight gunshots while he was wrapping Christmas presents at his home.

"I told my wife it was gunshots. She thought it was firecrackers," Gorai said.

[Associated Press; By RYAN NAKASHIMA and KATHLEEN HENNESSEY]

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