THOUSAND OAKS : Shooting Suspect, 17, Sent to Juvenile Hall

A 17-year-old Rowland Heights boy, the main defendant in a shooting that left two Westlake High School football players hospitalized last February, was ordered Tuesday detained in Juvenile Hall in Ventura until his January trial.

Assault charges against the boy--who is not being named because of his age--were dropped in September after a judge ruled that police illegally coerced a confession from him.

But the youth was arrested again last week, after prosecutors decided that they had enough evidence to try him without the confession.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren set a Jan. 3 trial for the youth, who is charged with two counts of assault with a firearm. Two other youths charged in the case face trial, and a fourth is a fugitive.

The four suspects were charged after a Feb. 3 melee. During the incident, five carloads of youths arrived at North Ranch Park in Thousand Oaks and attacked another group of people with baseball bats, sticks and guns.

All four youths charged in the case are Asian American, and the victims are white. Attorneys for the defendants have said that the prosecutions are racially motivated.