Mother Jailed After a Son Accidentally Shoots Sibling : Investigation: Woman hid gun and told police stray bullet wounded 8-year-old, but questioning leads to admissions that 13-year-old brother fired shot inside family van, authorities say.

A woman was arrested on misdemeanor charges after allegedly concocting a story to cover up an accidental shooting involving her two sons in a family van, police said Saturday.

Investigators said Norma Magana Billela had left her boys, 13 and 8, alone in the van, which had three handguns inside.

The older boy accidentally shot his brother Friday night, but the mother told police the 8-year-old was wounded by a stray bullet, said Sgt. Dick Faust.

“She told her kids to lie and basically we got the wrong story,” Faust said.

The story quickly began to unravel, he said, when investigators questioned the Anaheim family more closely.

Billela was booked into the Santa Ana Detention Facility late Friday on suspicion of child endangerment, failure to secure a weapon and interfering with police officers, Faust said.

Her 8-year-old son was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange for treatment of a gunshot wound to the neck and was in stable condition late Saturday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Paramedics said the bullet narrowly missed the boy’s trachea, a wound that would have been much more serious.

The shooting occurred at 7:56 p.m. Friday after Billela went to the Coach Royal Mobile Home Park in Santa Ana, Faust said. Billela went inside a Princess Lane home to visit friends and left the boys in the 1981 GMC van parked outside, Faust said.

Soon after, Billela and others heard a gunshot and saw the 13-year-old running from the van, Faust said. Inside the van, the 8-year-old was found suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck.

When police and paramedics arrived, however, the family said the boy had been hit by a stray bullet “going through the sky,” Faust said.

He alleged that the mother also hid a 32-caliber handgun--apparently used in the shooting--in an air duct attached to the mobile home where she had been visiting.

Investigators found the handgun in the air duct and two other handguns--one a 9-millimeter and the other a .45-caliber--underneath the front seat of the van, Faust said.

Based on statements later made by the 8-year-old victim and his brother and further investigation, police concluded that the 13-year-old had accidentally shot his brother inside the van, Faust said.

“It sounded like a pretty good story at first, but they kept investigating and determined it didn’t happen that way after all,” Faust said. “Officers confronted the mother, the victim and his brother and they all came out with the truth.”

The case will be turned over the the Orange County district attorney’s office for further investigation, Faust said.

The older boy was released to the custody of an aunt and his brother also is expected to be released to an aunt when he leaves the hospital, he said.

“It appears the 13-year-old had no criminal intent in the shooting,” Faust said.

The mother was later released from jail on her own recognizance.

On Saturday, two people at the family’s Anaheim home declined to discuss the incident.