OCC Student Is Killed While Playing With Gun

A 19-year-old Irvine man accidentally shot and killed himself early Tuesday while playing with a handgun at a friend’s home, police said.

Peter Joseph Scarpello, an Orange Coast College student, shot himself in the head with a .25-caliber automatic about 1:10 a.m. as a woman friend watched in horror, said Irvine Police Sgt. Mike White.

The 19-year-old woman, whom police did not identify, was not injured. No one was arrested or cited.

Scarpello and the woman were visiting the home of a 19-year-old friend at 48 Sandpiper, a few blocks from Scarpello’s Woodbridge home, police said. White said Scarpello found the gun in the friend’s bedroom and held it to his head. He died at the scene.

“We feel the shooting was accidental. The gun belongs to the resident who lives there and apparently (Scarpello) saw it there, picked it up and started messing around with it. He ejected the (the ammunition clip) and put the gun to his head, thinking it was unloaded. Unfortunately there was a round in the chamber,” White said.

The 19-year-old who lived at the house was working at the time, but returned home shortly after the shooting, said Greg Charlton, 19, who was looking after the house for the family. Charlton identified the young man who lived there as “Michael,” but refused to give his last name.

Charlton said Michael lived in the two-story home with his mother, who had left Saturday for a two-week vacation in Europe. He said Michael and the woman who witnessed the shooting left town after they finished talking with police Tuesday.

“There were four of us boys who have been friends for some years now,” said Charlton, referring to Scarpello, Michael, another 19-year-old man and himself. “We sort of grew up together in Woodbridge and we all attended high school together.

“Michael was alone here. We are over here quite a bit anyways, but with his mom gone, we stopped by a bit more. You know how kids are.”

Charlton said he, Scarpello, the 19-year-old woman and a fourth person had been at the house Monday until about 11:20 p.m. and the four of them had watched a video movie together.

“At the time of the shooting, Peter was here with a young lady who is a mutual friend of us all. Peter was in (Michael’s) bedroom where the stereo equipment is and he had the speaker in the hall. They were up there looking for some headphones and he found the gun under the bed,” Charlton said.

“He either removed the clip from the gun or it was already out. There was a bullet in the chamber, which unfortunately Peter didn’t realize. The gun went off and Peter was hit in the head. It seems as though it happened as he picked it up.

“Within minutes, Michael drove up, getting off of work and found the young lady very upset. She was on the phone already calling 911.”

Charlton said he, Scarpello, Michael and the young woman were students at Orange Coast College. He said Scarpello, who worked as an audio-visual technician for McCune Sound Service in Anaheim, was taking courses in music production.

Scarpello’s sister, Lisa Scarpello, described her brother as a creative person who wrote poems and songs and was in the marching band at Woodbridge High School before graduating in 1986.

“It was just a stupid accident,” she said. “We don’t want to talk too much and upset people any more than they already are. His friends are very upset. It was just a dreadful accident.”