Healing continues from preschool tragedy

Deepa Bharath

COSTA MESA -- Everyone knew the city would never be the same again

after May 3, 1999 -- long before Sept. 11.

Three years ago today, it happened. Steven Allen Abrams stormed

through a preschool playground in his 1967 Cadillac, killing Brandon

Wiener, 3, and Sierra Soto, 4, and wounding several others.

Abrams is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

And the people he affected through his actions are still suffering

silently.

Pam Wiener, Brandon’s mother, says she tries to get by -- one day at a

time. But, she adds, although recovering from the loss of a loved one is

a long, arduous process, with time things do get better.

“Holidays, birthdays and anniversaries are always hard,” she said.

“But there are some days -- normal days -- when you just wake up

thinking, ‘You know, he’s really not here.’

“I’ll never forget Brandon or stop loving him,” she continued. “But as

time goes by, those bad days become less frequent.”

Sierra’s mother, Cindy Soto, took on the cause of school and child

safety as her life’s mission after her daughter’s death. She started the

Sierra’s Light Foundation, a local nonprofit group that raises money to

make schools and day-care centers safer.

Wiener, who worked with Soto for the last two years, has now taken on

a cause of her own. She is working hard to raise enough money to set up

the Brandon Cody Wiener Scholarship Foundation. Her goal is to send to

summer camp next year at least four or five children who have lost a

loved one.

Wiener said she was motivated to begin the program based on the

grieving her two children, Justin and Shaya, are going through for their

brother.

“They’re grieving in their own way,” she said. “I think kids would

really enjoy going to camp and not forget what happened -- but have

something to look forward to -- and be with others who are going through

the same thing.”

The community, on the other hand, is trying to get past its own

insecurities after the horrible incident, public safety officials said.

“We hoped there was some way we could’ve detected this guy’s

intentions to murder the children,” Police Chief Dave Snowden said. “The

community will never forget that day. I know I never will.”

Fire Chief Jim Ellis, who was the incident commander at the time, said

the tragedy changed the way he looks at preschools every time he drives

past one.

“It made me realize how vulnerable our children are,” he said. “But

we’ve learned a lot from that incident as a department, just as we have

from Sept. 11.”

It’s difficult for the community as a whole to ever recover from an

incident of such magnitude, said Costa Mesa resident Dave Jenkins.

“I don’t know if anyone can ever recover from the killing of innocent

children,” he said. “[Abrams] is in prison, but families and friends [of

the victims] are still in their own private hell.”

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 deepa.bharath@latimes.comf7 .