Young Buena Park Gun Victim Dies : Shooting: The fatal wounding of the 13-year-old boy by a playmate is still being viewed as an accident.

A 13-year-old Buena Park boy who was shot in the head at close range by a 12-year-old friend died Wednesday, authorities said.

Adam LaFortune was pronounced dead at Los Alamitos Medical Center at 8:37 p.m., police said.

Earlier in the day, as Adam had clung to life, his 15-year-old sister Nicole LaFortune said that the shooting had brought her family and the other boy’s family closer together.

“There’s nothing to make amends of. It was a tragic accident and nothing can be done about it,” she said in a brief interview at the family’s home.

Adam was playing in an upstairs bedroom at his 12-year-old friend’s home when he was shot Monday evening, police said.

No one has been charged in the shooting, La Palma Police Cmdr. Vince Giampa said. Police are withholding the name of the 12-year-old, as is standard practice with a juvenile.

Giampa said detectives have so far turned up no evidence that the incident was anything other than an accident. Nevertheless, detectives will take the case to the Orange County district attorney’s office for review after the investigation is completed, he said.

According to Giampa, the 12-year-old had taken a .22-caliber pistol from a shelf in the home’s master bedroom as Adam was playing a computer game. As the younger boy approached him, Adam turned and looked toward him. Adam was shot once in the forehead from one to two feet away, Giampa said.

The officer added that the 12-year-old boy’s younger brother found ammunition somewhere in the house recently, but “we don’t know who loaded (the gun) and how.”

The 12-year-old boy has brothers who are 10 and 16 years old.

It had been a rule in the household to keep the gun unloaded, Giampa said. The family had kept it in the closet for the last year.

“Somehow it got loaded,” he said. “It didn’t load itself.”

Nichole LaFortune said that Adam had gotten to know the 12-year-old in 1983, when the family moved to Buena Park. The boy’s mother was Nichole’s painting instructor at a private school nearby. For a long time, she said, her brother “spent practically every weekend with them.”

Before learning of his death, Nichole described her brother as a bright, well-liked boy who has many friends in the neighborhood.

“He likes to read,” she said. “He loves animals. He’s real bookish.

“Sometimes, I forget how old he is,” she said. “He’s very old for his age.”

Nichole said that she also has a 7-year-old brother and 3-year-old sister.