Wrong Turn Ends in Deadly Gang Ambush : Violence: Child, 3, dies. Two others are hurt as youths block car’s escape from dead-end street and open fire.

In a classic urban nightmare, about a dozen gang members surrounded “a car full of children” that took a wrong turn onto a graffiti-marred dead-end street in the dark early Sunday, blocked the vehicle as the driver tried frantically to escape, and then opened fire on the passengers.

A 3-year-old girl was killed, Los Angeles police said. Her 2-year-old brother, who was sitting in an infant car seat, and the car’s driver were both wounded in the ambush in the gang-ridden Cypress Park neighborhood they accidentally strayed into as they were returning from a barbecue.

Stephanie Kuhen was hit in the head and mortally wounded in the barrage from handguns. Her brother Joseph, 2, was struck in the foot. The driver, Timothy Stone, 25, was shot in the back. Stephanie’s mother, Robynn, 26, and her brother Christopher, 5, and uncle, David Dalton, 22, were unhurt.

No arrests had been made in what police are calling a completely unprovoked ambush shooting by Latino gang members in an area between railroad tracks and the hills of Mt. Washington in northeast Los Angeles.

The area is plagued by battles among rival Latino gangs, police said, which is what made the shooting all the more perplexing.

“Clearly they could look into the car and see male and female Caucasians and not Hispanics,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Robert Lopez. “You can see a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old and you can pretty much figure they’re not going to threaten your life. . . . I can’t see a 3-year-old flipping gang signs.”

No one in the car had any gang affiliation, police emphasized.

“I hope you’ll tell them what cowards those people were,” Fran Fanning, the children’s aunt, told The Times on Sunday.

The deadly ambush started at about 1:45 a.m. Sunday when Stone, a family friend, was driving Robynn Kuhen and her children home from a barbecue, police and family members explained.

“They were driving home and taking a shortcut,” said Mike Fanning, the children’s cousin. Stone “wasn’t familiar with the area,” he said, and at a fork in the road, Stone turned onto the 2000 block of Isabel Street--a dark, narrow dead-end alley where neighbors say as many as a hundred gang members often hang out.

The road bears two signs: an official yellow traffic sign saying “Not a through street,” and a graffiti warning in misspelled Spanish, spray-painted some time before Sunday’s incident: “ Avenida . . . assecinos “--street of killers.

Before Stone realized his error, someone threw a trash can at the car, said Mike Fanning.

Stone made a U-turn and was heading out when 10 to 15 young Latino men moved into the street to block the car, hurling more trash cans in front of the car’s tires, Fanning said.

Stone floored the accelerator to break through, said Lopez, and as the car lurched free, the gang members opened fire--three or four of them, according to relatives.

“I made myself [get us out of there], flat tires and all,” said Stone, looking pale and exhausted Sunday, his back bandaged.

“It’s obvious they knew it was a car full of children,” said Mike Fanning, “because [the victims’ car] drove by them the first time.”

Stone drove the family to their home nearby. Joe Kuhen, an uncle of the children, said, “They just pulled up, the car was all shot full of holes, and they called an ambulance. A neighbor came and tried to do CPR on [Stephanie].”

Stephanie and Christopher were sitting in the back seat between their mother and their uncle, Dalton. Stephanie was struck once in the head. She died at 2:30 a.m. at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, according to hospital spokesman Harvey Kern.

Her youngest brother, Joseph, 2, was struck in the foot as he sat in his car seat in front. He remained at the same hospital Sunday in good condition. Stone, who was hit in the back, was treated and released Sunday.

Dalton and Christopher Kuhen were unhurt, police said. Dalton’s sister, Tina Dalton, said Sunday that a bullet had passed through the back of her brother’s baseball cap.

Gunfire is a common occurrence on Isabel, said a neighbor who heard the incident but was fearful of giving his name. His apartment abuts the alleyway.

“We don’t even call the police anymore when we hear bullets,” the man said. “There has to be a body for them to come.”

Looking nervously at one of his two young sons, he said that he often has both boys sleep in the bathroom, where stray bullets are less likely to strike.

“I heard a volley of gunfire,” said a petite 62-year-old woman, who would only give her last name, Gonzalez. She said it is common for 100 or more gang members to congregate at night in the middle of the street, drinking, smoking or trying to persuade their girlfriends to wander off into the dark, abandoned, pink apartment building with boarded-up windows cloaked in graffiti.

“These are kids without any brains,” she said of the gang members.

Her own house was marked by the Sunday shooting. “This is the bullet that woke me up,” she said, fingering a large hole in the heavy black mesh fence in front of her stucco home. A green car across the street from her house was pockmarked with bullet holes.

By Sunday afternoon, the short, narrow alley, partly paved and partly dirt, had returned to normal. Ranchera music blared, a rooster crowed and several men delved grease-blackened hands into the innards of their automobiles.

“This guy was on the wrong street,” Gonzalez said. Pointing to the end of the road, which is dirt, she added, “Lots of people come in here thinking that the street goes on. But it doesn’t.”

* RESEDA SHOOTING: Drive-by shooting kills alleged gang member, injures 3 customers in Reseda diner. B1