In response to last weekend's outbreak of gang violence in Napa, police are pulling in resources from other county law enforcement agencies.

"We are asking for assistance from the sheriff's office and the district attorney to help us wrap up these investigations," said Napa Police Sgt. Terry Gonsalves, who heads the Napa police gang unit. "We hope to make some arrests very soon and get some of these people off the street."

Last Friday saw a shooting and a stabbing. The violence continued on Saturday, when an innocent bystander was shot as he sat outside a northwest Napa market enjoying his soft drink. Gonsalves said all three incidents are gang related.

None of the victims' injuries were life threatening. All were treated at Queen of the Valley Medical Center and released.

"Although the three cases are gang related, we don't believe they are connected," Gonsalves said.

Gang violence is not rampant in Napa, Gonsalves said, but "we do have a gang issue, and we deal with it on a daily basis. Gang issues can happen every day. We believe it was just a coincidence that we had three incidents of gang violence within a two-day span."

Gonsalves said Napa police detectives assigned to the gang unit will team up with detectives from the sheriff's department and investigators from the district attorney's office to work these cases. "I can't say right now when we will make any arrests, but I am hopeful it will be soon."

Last weekend's violence started on Friday afternoon at the Collier Boulevard apartment complex. Several gang members went to the complex seeking revenge for the beating of a gang member's brother earlier that day, according to Gonsalves.

The men were in the parking lot when they thought they spotted cars belonging to rival gang members.

"They started breaking windows and jumping up and down on the cars, while yelling gang slurs," he said. "The rival gang members responded, more gang slurs were exchanged and one of the (visiting) gang members was shot in the wrist when they fled the area."

The next incident happened around 11:45 p.m., when a 21-year-old man was walking on Beard Road, near Pear Tree Lane.

A car stopped, and a man got out and confronted the man who was walking, Gonsalves said. "At that time five other men got out of the car. We believe they were all rival gang members."

The group of men attacked the 21-year-old man, who was stabbed in the back of the head.

"We believe the guys in the car recognized the man walking on the street as a rival gang member and attacked him, knowing he was alone and didn't have any of his gang friends there for protection," Gonsalves said.

The man was able to get away from his assailants and make it to the Queen for treatment.

The final altercation happened around 5:30 p.m., Saturday.

A Hispanic man in his late teens was sitting in front of the Taco Loco Market on Avon Avenue, having a soft drink, when he got shot by a gang member. The victim is not a member of any gang, Gonsalves said.

A Honda pulled up and one of the occupants yelled a gang slur at the teen, pulled a handgun and shot the boy in the leg.

"The victim didn't understand what was going on. We think the shooter thought he was a rival gang member," Gonsalves said.

Although the ongoing gang violence is something officers in Napa deal with routinely, it has not reached epidemic proportions, Gonsalves said.

Napa has not had a notable uprising in gang activity since 1998, when Michael Arreguin, 18, was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Napa by a group of rival gang members. The homicide resulted in the arrest and conviction of four rival teen gang members. All are serving life sentences in state prison.

Arreguin's death sparked a rash of retaliation gang violence for the next several months, which including several more shootings. All of the victims survived their injuries, except one, Martin Veloz, a teen who died several years later from medical complications from a gunshot wound to his abdomen.