LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two men identified by police as a gang member and a suspected associate were arrested Wednesday in a shooting that critically wounded a 6-year-old boy.

The boy and his family were on their way to buy a car Tuesday when two men flashed gang signs at them and one of them shot at their sport utility vehicle, hitting the child in the head.

The family is black, the suspects are Hispanic and police say a Hispanic gang has targeted black victims in the area before. Authorities did not know whether the latest attack was racially motivated.

Also in the car were an 18-month-old child, a 3-year-old, a man and two women, one of whom was six months pregnant, authorities said. They were not wounded.

Police did not release the names of the suspects, ages 25 and 26. They were arrested about 5:30 a.m. and were to be booked for investigation of attempted murder, police Capt. William Hayes said.

One of the men was a local gang member and the other was "probably an associate" of the gang, Hayes said.

"We are very confident that we have the people who were involved in the actual shooting in custody," Police Chief William Bratton said. The handgun had not been located.

The men also could face state or federal hate crime charges if it is determine the shooting was racially motivated, the chief said.

The boy is on life support, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. The bullet cannot be removed, Hayes said.

The mayor said he met with the boy's mother.

"I can tell you that there's almost nothing you can say to a mother whose boy is on life support," Villaraigosa said.

Bratton said Tuesday that the Harbor Gateway area, where the shooting occurred, was "under the influence of a Latino gang" and referred to a December 2006 gang attack in which a 14-year-old black girl was shot to death. Police alleged Cheryl Green was killed by members of a Hispanic gang intent on killing blacks following a confrontation between the gang members and a black man.

Two men have been charged with murder and hate crimes related to Green's death.

However, it was too early in the investigation to determine whether Tuesday's attack was racially motivated, Bratton said Wednesday.

Bratton and the mayor both said there had not been any recent increase in racially related violence.

"There is not that type of racial animosity in this city," Bratton said. "In a country where race is on the front page all the time, we do pretty well there."