Response to Shooting Over Pumpkin Is Ignorant

* I was shocked at the ignorance Sean Mill expressed in his Oct. 31 letter.

Back in New Jersey when I was growing up, we had a tradition called Mischief Night. On Mischief Night, kids would do innocent pranks like soap windows of cars, steal pumpkins, etc. It occurred the night before Halloween, Oct. 30. Had these boys lived in my neighborhood, it would have all been treated as expected fun-loving behavior.

What Brandon Ketsdever and his friends did was a rather mild form of vandalism that did not harm anyone. Pete Tavita Solomona recklessly used a loaded gun with tragic results and he deserves far more than a reprimand.

Mill has no knowledge of when to legally use a gun for protection. We have the right to use a gun to defend a life but not to protect property.

Mill needs to realize things can always be replaced, but a life is lost forever. The joy of the Halloween season was spoiled for me by this tragedy. My sympathy goes out to all touched by this sad story.

JOANN HOUSTON

Mission Viejo

* My eyes still fill with tears when I recall the tragic way Brandon Ketsdever died.

I did not know Brandon, but my children did. I can only imagine the heartbreak Brandon’s parents are going through. Not only was their son killed by an irrational act of revenge by Pete Tavita Solomona, but there are those who seem to say that this was OK, that Brandon deserved to die.

Since when has petty theft been a crime punishable by execution? When was the last time any of the hypocrites who support Solomona took something that did not belong to them? Pencils or pens from the workplace? Personal copies made on the copy machine at work? This too is theft.

By their own statements, if their employer caught them, he would have a right to walk out to their car and shoot them in the head. Because, after all, employers lose thousands of dollars each year due to employee theft, and I bet they are pretty tired of putting up with it.

You might say that this was different. But really it’s not. Except Brandon was a teenager. And everybody always assumes the worst about teenagers.

But teenagers are not adults; they are still children learning the ways of the world. And sadly, many of Brandon’s friends, my children included, have learned how unfeeling many adults are, and how little a child’s life means in this country.

It is a very sad commentary on our society when people sanction a killing of a child. It becomes even worse when that child’s friends are subjected to angry looks and malicious statements when they visit the memorial where Brandon lost his life. Do these people not have any feelings?

I am not sanctioning what Brandon and his friends did that evening. However, if Solomona was close enough to fire a loaded .357 magnum into Brandon’s head, then he was surely close enough to write down his license number and call the police.

Solomona says he is a religious man. I say Jesus judges people by their actions. Solomona took a loaded gun and shot a young man who still had so much of life left to live. He will have to answer for his actions not only in this lifetime, but in the next.

Sadly, nothing will bring Brandon back to the family and friends who loved him. Godspeed Brandon, you will forever be in our hearts.

KATHY MITCHELL

Buena Park