WATSONVILLE -- After two innocent people were shot in separate incidents of gang violence during the weekend, the police chief said Monday that gang members, especially teenagers, are getting more brazen.

"We're seeing an increased level of violence with younger offenders," Watsonville Police Chief Manny Solano said.

Older, more-seasoned gang members are recruiting and instructing young, impressionable kids to do the gang's dirty work, according to Solano.

A 7-year-old boy was shot at a city bowling alley Friday night, hit by a stray bullet intended for a gang member, according to police.

On Sunday night, a 32-year-old city woman was struck by what police think was a bullet also intended for someone else. Police are still looking for that shooter, but they suspect the incident was gang-related.

In Friday night's shooting, an 18-year-old suspected gang member allegedly shot the boy at Cabrillo Lanes on Auto Center Drive, hitting him in the abdomen. Police say the boy was not the intended target.

The alleged shooter, Abraham Santoyo of Watsonville, was with James Macias, a 20-year-old parolee and also a suspected gang member, when the pair went after a 20-year-old man, apparently because he had dropped out of the gang, police said. That man was stabbed once in the neck during the attack, police reported.

Santoyo, who had a handgun with him when he was arrested Saturday, and Macias both will be arraigned on two counts of gang-related attempted murder Wednesday, charges that could send the young men to prison for life, according to assistant district attorney Charlie Baum.

The boy and the man stabbed in the neck were both in stable condition at San Francisco Bay Area hospitals Saturday after surgery, according to police. No updates on their conditions were available.

Police are still looking for the suspects in the weekend's second gang shooting.

A 32-year-old woman living on Holm Road was shot once in the back during a drive-by that targeted someone else in her house, Watsonville police Sgt. Saul Gonzalez said.

The shooting happened in Watsonville City Councilman Antonio Riva's district.

"It's always concerning," said Rivas, who plans to walk the neighborhood with the city's Post-Incident Team later in the week. "We're going to be working on this case very closely. It's my hope that people in the neighborhood saw who did it and can give us that information."

There have been other close calls in recent months.

A teen faces similar charges for a gang-related shooting Dec. 22 near the Pajaro River levee that didn't injure anyone, but left a stray bullet under an empty crib in a nearby house. Fabio Lopez, 16, who is being tried as an adult, has pleaded innocent to charges of attempted murder, assault with a firearm, firing at an inhabited building and gang allegations.

On Jan. 1, gang members allegedly shot out a window of a passing car near an East Lake Avenue restaurant while trying to hit a 28-year-old Watsonville man with a gang history. Two brothers -- Julio Amezcua Cabrera, 26, and 34-year-old Evaristo Amezcua Cabrera -- have been charged in connection with the shooting, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Solano said while gang violence does spill over and harm innocent people, those instances are rare.

"For the most part, the violence that we do see, the victims and the suspects are familiar to one another," he said. "I don't feel at this point that it's anything that people need to be worried about."

However, Solano said his department is working with school programs, local churches and Neighborhood Watch groups to deal with the violence on multiple levels. He encouraged community members to get involved in both reporting crime and seeking help for at-risk youth. Reaching kids before they hit their late teens is key, Solano said.

Last week, Watsonville was one of 24 communities statewide awarded an anti-gang grant funding by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A portion of the $382,639 will maintain a teen intervention program that loses its original grant funding June 30. The program aims to keep young teens who have committed minor violations or have family ties to gang members out of trouble.

"Prevention is really where it's at," Solano said. "We're trying to get the message out there that if people have a family member or know someone who is involved, try to intervene."