Teen Charged With Murder in 2nd Shooting at His Home

A 17-year-old boy who in a span of four years fatally shot two schoolmates in the same room of his Anaheim Hills home was charged Friday with murder in the most recent case.

The suspect, Richard H. Bourassa Jr., told investigators that both shootings--the first of Jeffrey Bush, 13, in 1986, and the latest of 17-year-old Christian Wiedepuhl on May 24--were accidental.

Prosecutors, who concluded that the first shooting was an accident, said they spent four months studying the second shooting before deciding to file charges in Santa Ana Juvenile Court.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathi Harper said investigators re-created the circumstances of the shooting, analyzing physical evidence that included gun residue on Bourassa’s clothing and “critical” ballistics tests.

The Wiedepuhl shooting prompted authorities to reopen the investigation into Jeffrey Bush’s death. But Harper said Friday that it was once again determined there was insufficient evidence to charge Bourassa in that shooting.

Bourassa, a high school junior, has not been arrested. An arrangement has been made with his attorney for the boy to appear as early as Monday in Orange County Juvenile Court.

In addition to the murder charge, authorities filed a charge of involuntary manslaughter against Bourassa so that a jury would have an alternative if it could not find him guilty of murder, Harper said.