Grieving Fathers Take Different Views in Their Sons’ Deaths

Twelve hours after learning of the death of his 17-year-old son, Richard Wiedepuhl grappled with the overwhelming grief that once ruled the life of Dale Bush.

Each father lost a son to the hand of the same youth. But on Friday, one condemned, while the other continued to forgive.

“I know how the other parents must feel,” said Bush, whose son Jeffrey was killed four years ago in a shooting first ruled accidental, but reopened Friday. Bush said he believed his son’s death, and the fatal shooting Thursday of Christian R. Wiedepuhl by the same 17-year-old, were nothing more than a terrible and tragic coincidence.

“I just feel that it was an accident,” he said.

Unlike Bush, who said he is “satisfied” that the teen-ager meant no malice in either shooting, Wiedepuhl called for a full investigation into his son’s death.

“It was done before and it will be done again,” said Wiedepuhl as he sat on the couch in the living room of his Anaheim Hills home. At 12:50 a.m. Friday, he had been told his son had died of a single gunshot wound to his forehead.

Between calls from relatives, insurance agents and reporters, Wiedepuhl spoke about his son with a profound sadness that gave way to occasional outbursts of anger and frustration.

“He’s ready to kill again,” Wiedepuhl said of his son’s friend, who told police he accidentally pulled the trigger of the .38-caliber handgun that killed Christian. The gun belonged to the stepfather of the high school sophomore, whom police declined to identify.

Bush’s 13-year-old son died in 1986 after the same teen-ager, then a junior high student, fired a shell from a .12-gauge shotgun.

That two similar deaths could both be accidents does not add up in Wiedepuhl’s mind.

“I don’t believe it was an accident,” he said. “How could it be, my son was shot above the right eye. . . . This was a cold-blooded killing.”

Bush remembered the teen-ager who shot his son as “very friendly and courteous. He was much more polite than my son,” he said.

In a telephone interview, Bush said that over the years he heard from mutual acquaintances that the teen-ager had become increasingly distraught and had seen a psychologist after Jeffrey died.

At Canyon High School, those who knew Christian and the teen-ager shared Friday in the confusion and disbelief expressed by the two fathers.

Tom Neill, Orange Unified School District public information officer, said 10 psychologists visited the 1,700-student campus and talked to about 50 students.

“It was kind of a solemn mood,” Neill said, “and they were able to comfort the (students) in any way they needed.”

Many students interviewed said the teen-ager often wore combat-style clothes and was a member of the wrestling team. Some openly admitted they felt intimidated by him.

But Justin Young, 16, said that while some people thought he was strange, he was a “cool . . . dude.”

Young said the youth talked frequently about joining the Army or the Air Force after high school and had plans to attend a military camp this summer.

Young, like other students, was shaken by the tragedy, and wondered aloud how his classmate could continue to be interested in guns after the first incident.

Christian was described as a thin, quiet semi-loner, who had a strong mechanical aptitude. He enjoyed working on cars, including a blue Fiat Spyder and a Volkswagen Bug, which were parked on the driveway of the two-story East Kennedy Avenue home.

“He was a very unique boy,” Wiedepuhl said. “At things he liked, he was excellent. He was especially mechanically and electronically inclined. School he didn’t take too seriously.”

Funeral arrangement for Christian were pending, Wiedepuhl said.

While the two fathers disagreed on the shooter’s intention, they agreed that the teen-ager’s parents, who declined to be interviewed, should be held ultimately responsible for the tragic deaths.

“It’s just incredible that he had access to guns,” Bush said. “It (the 1986 shooting) shouldn’t have happened then, and for sure there is no way that if they took any measures against it reoccurring, it should have happened again.”

With tears welling in his eyes, Wiedepuhl described the almost uncontrollable frustration that was building inside of him as he thought about the freedom the teen-ager enjoyed while his son was dead.

“I blame the parents,” he said, shaking his head. “They should have had the gun secured. I have nothing against having a gun, just have it the right way.”

“Guns should be locked up,” he continued. Searching to make sense of his son’s sudden death, he added: “If one life is saved by this, then he didn’t die in vain. These deaths can only be stopped by prevention.”

Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.