Father Had Borrowed Gun : Toddler Mistaken for Intruder Is Killed

A 3-year-old boy was shot and killed by his father, who mistook him for an intruder early Thursday in a dark hallway of the family’s North Hollywood apartment, Los Angeles police said.

Victor Manuel Sesmas was pronounced dead on arrival at Serra Memorial Health Center. His father, Manuel Sesmas, 30, had shot the boy once in the chest with a .38-caliber pistol about 3:45 a.m., Lt. Ron LaRue said.

Sesmas and his wife, Nely, told police that their apartment in the 10800 block of Hart Street had been burglarized twice in the last two months. After one of those burglaries, Manuel Sesmas borrowed the pistol for protection, LaRue said.

“It was a terrible accident,” Sesmas said in an interview.

After the recent burglaries, “I was very afraid,” he explained.

Of the handgun, he said, “I only had it to protect the house.”

The shooting occurred after Mrs. Sesmas, 31, awakened to the sound of the bedroom door opening and closing and thought burglars had entered the home again. The couple and their young son slept in the same room, police said.

“She apparently had this fear based on what happened prior,” LaRue said.

She woke her husband and told him, “ ‘Here they come’ or ‘They’re in the house,’ or words to that effect,” LaRue said.

Manuel Sesmas pulled the loaded pistol out from beneath the mattress, LaRue said.

Sesmas went to the bedroom door and peered into the hallway, LaRue said. The lights were out, but when he “detected movement coming towards him” he fired the bullet that entered the son’s chest, exited his side and was found later on the hallway floor, LaRue said.

“It was very dark, and I saw the shadow,” Sesmas said. “When it moved, and that was all I saw, I shot downward, not to hurt whoever it was . . . then I saw that it was my son, and I went crazy.”

Sesmas, a machine operator at a Burbank electronics manufacturing company, said he did not suspect that his son had left the room because the bedroom door was closed and the boy rarely got up without turning on the light or awakening his parents.

“You’re dealing with a situation that’s in the middle of the night, after being awakened from a sound sleep, and there were past prior break-ins, a darkened house and sudden movement,” LaRue said.

“Only the person who was there can make a really sound evaluation, and I’m sure that he can’t, at this point, come to grips with what occurred,” he said.

In the two past burglaries, neither of which was reported to police initially, the thieves took some cash and a video-cassette recorder, Sesmas said.

Detectives believe the boy had awakened and gone down the hall to the bathroom, LaRue said.

The parents told investigators they were surprised that Victor had done that because “their son had a very strong fear of the dark,” LaRue said.

“That northern end of North Hollywood is a heavy burglary area,” said Police Capt. Glenn Ackerman, chief of patrol for the North Hollywood Division.

In the first half of this year, 38 residential burglaries were reported in the neighborhood, which is classified as one of 59 “reporting districts” in the division, Officer Liz Rieger said. Another district led the division with 43 home break-ins, with the Hart Street area tied for second with another district, she said.

Sesmas was questioned and released by detectives, LaRue said, adding: “It appears to be accidental. There wasn’t anything to indicate specific intent by anyone” to harm the boy.

Nonetheless, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office plans to review the case, he said.

Sesmas, who has another son, David, 2, said he turned the gun over to police.

“I still think that, for the protection of the house, a gun is all right. But after what happened, I don’t know,” he said. “My first son is gone.”