Baby’s Death by Gunshot Jolts Neighbors

On the quiet tree-lined streets of Laguna Niguel, where the grass is Kelly green and the yards carefully manicured, nothing about the shooting death of an 8-month-old baby boy named Armani made sense.

Nothing.

“I can’t imagine why this happened,” said John Underwood, holding his 7-month-old daughter in his arms. “I would never have guns in a house with my children.”

In a city residents call “safe” and a “good place to raise a family,” the reality that an infant was shot in the head by his young mother--apparent accident or not--was shocking.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is still investigating the shooting, said Lt. Larry Abbott, who called the death of the baby “terrible.” On Friday, a department spokesman said the shooting appeared to be unintentional.

Armani died Friday night about 8 p.m. after undergoing two surgeries at Children’s Hospital at Mission in Mission Viejo. His 20-year-old mother, Shantae Molina, told police that the gun accidentally went off when she grabbed it after hearing what she thought was a prowler, according to her attorney. Police said Molina called 911 “hysterical” shortly before 1 p.m. after realizing she shot her baby.

Many in the community said the shooting made them think again about the danger of keeping loaded guns in the home. It made them wonder about neighbors, friends and baby sitters.

“Do we have to start asking everyone if they have guns in their home? Do we have to ask if they have lockboxes?” asked Laguna Niguel resident Cassie De Young.

Just blocks away at a middle school where local parents came to sign up their daughters for softball, the conversation centered on the shooting. In the close-knit community, many knew the family or knew others who did. Desiree, Armani’s 13-year-old aunt, regularly baby-sat for neighborhood families, said one woman.

Everyone said the baby’s death seemed horrible, hard to believe.

“You always hear that you’re more likely to end up killing a family member than an intruder when you have a gun in the house,” said Valerie Underwood, surrounded by her husband and three little girls. “But it’s still a shock.”

A 1995 study by the Center for Health Statistics found that 440 children died in accidental shootings across the nation. A 1994 FBI report found that gunshots killed more preschoolers than on-duty police officers. Armani’s death is the latest of several accidental shootings in Orange County over the last year.

In one highly publicized case last year, a 12-year-old girl was accidentally shot and wounded by a playmate in a Rancho Santa Margarita house. In August, a 9-year-old Dana Point girl was wounded in what authorities called an accidental shooting at her home.

Karen Pollard of Laguna Niguel said she has tried to keep her children out of homes where she knows loaded guns are kept. This shooting made her feel she needed to be more vigilant than ever.

Pollard’s 8-year-old daughter Kelly said she knew what to do if she ever saw a gun.

“I would never want to use a gun,” said the little redheaded girl. “I would leave and go home.”

But others in the community said handguns in homes are not uncommon, even though the crime rate is very low.

Molina’s attorney, Eric Lampel, said the young woman was alone with the baby in the home at the time of the incident and was nervous because of a recent burglary in the neighborhood. Lampel said Molina’s fear was compounded by a recent report by neighbors of shots being fired in the street. Both incidents took place in broad daylight, he said.

An elderly neighbor said she and her grandson heard shots a few weeks back but said she was not particularly alarmed.

“I thought it was just some kids goofing around,” she said.

Abbott said the Sheriff’s Department was not able to immediately confirm problems in the neighborhood because of reduced weekend staffing. Lampel said Molina and her family--stepfather Kenny Welch, mother Olga Molina and 13-year-old sister Desiree--cooperated fully with police.

He said the fateful Friday afternoon had started out like any other day. Shantae Molina fed her son, did some laundry and was folding clothes in front of the television when she thought she heard footsteps and noises outside. She was alone in the home with Armani after the rest of the family left for vacation.

The 8-month-old was sitting in a baby chair in the living room when the shots were fired, said Lampel.

Molina’s family returned home shortly after 1 p.m. because they had forgotten some keys. They turned down the street--where children’s toys and bicycles litter the lawns--to find paramedics and police at the scene. Officials said they arrived at the house to find Molina holding the wounded child in her arms and weeping.

Lampel said the family--with whom he has been friendly for some time--called him Friday because they were too distraught to talk to the media.

“She had never fired a gun before,” said Lampel. “She was shaking terribly from fear of what was happening and the gun went off again. She doesn’t remember firing.”

Rick Snider, who lives across the street from the family, said Friday was a terrible day.

“He was very, very loved and just a beautiful baby,” said Snider, who waited at the hospital with the family. “If Olga wasn’t holding him, Des was holding him or Shantae was holding him.”

Snider said Olga fainted when told Armani had died at the hospital.

“It was the longest day of my life,” he said.

A physician who was at the hospital when the emergency code was declared said no one there could make sense of the tragedy.

“When we heard it was a baby there was just a hush,” she said. “No one could figure out how it could have happened. Was it a gang? Usually when there is an accident with a gun it is another child, and we all wondered in the middle of the day how that could be. It was just sad, so sad.”

At the cream-colored stucco home--a modest L-shaped ranch house--a bouquet of cut flowers was placed among the freshly planted mums. For much of the day a long white Sheriff’s Department bus blocked the front driveway and yellow police taped marked the site a crime scene.

By late afternoon, detectives were gone and the family returned to the house, where the blinds were closed tight and the phone went unanswered.