Gun Owner in Girl’s Shooting Cleared by D.A.

Prosecutors have decided not to file charges against the owner of a handgun with which a 13-year-old girl accidentally shot a friend, authorities said Tuesday.

After investigating the incident, prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to charge Eric Braun, the weapon’s owner, with a crime.

The decision, announced Tuesday, drew harsh criticism from the father of the wounded girl as well as gun-control advocates, who said that under terms of a 1991 state law an adult should be held responsible for firearms incidents that involve minors.

John Johannessen, the victim’s father, said Tuesday that he was outraged and shocked by the district attorney’s decision.

“I am in disbelief,” he said. “My daughter was shot because somebody left a loaded gun in a briefcase. What kind of message are they trying to send?”

Braun, an investigator with the U.S. Department of Defense, had stored the gun in his briefcase and locked it in the trunk of his car, police said.

Braun’s girlfriend, the mother of the 13-year-old who shot her friend, brought the suitcase into Braun’s Rancho Santa Margarita home and left it in a bedroom, Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Garner said.

The girl apparently found the weapon there, took it out of the briefcase and showed it to her 12-year-old friend, police said. Thinking the gun was not loaded, the girl pointed the 9-mm semiautomatic pistol and it went off, sending a bullet through face.

Authorities said it appeared that Braun had exercised caution, storing the weapon in a place he thought was safe.

Though his girlfriend knew the gun was in the unlocked briefcase, both she and Braun had often warned the girl not to touch the weapon, said Bruce Patterson, Orange County supervising deputy district attorney.

“My concern is the same as theirs. This is a tragic incident that all parents hate to read about,” Patterson said. But, he said, “we know that precautions had been made with the gun.”

The 1991 law was supported by gun-control advocates and the National Rifle Assn. It provides that a gun owner may be held liable if he leaves a loaded weapon in a place accessible to a child and the child or a bystander is injured or killed by the weapon.

Mary Leigh Blek, founder of Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence, said an adult should be held responsible in the Johannessen case.

“This speaks for itself. A child was seriously injured because of the gun owner’s actions,” Blek said. “People worked hard for this public health and safety measure. There is a problem with handguns getting into the hands of children. This is not in the best interest of our community.”

The injured girl was released from the hospital nearly a week ago but is unable to eat solid food or speak, her father said.

The bullet entered below her left ear and traveled through her right cheek, shattering her lower jaw and tonsils but not damaging her teeth or vital body parts.

Her jaw was wired shut after surgery, and she will be unable to eat solid foods for about nine months, Johannessen said.

Doctors said she will most likely need plastic surgery and years of physical therapy to recover movement in her jaw.