911 Tapes of Shooting Over Pumpkin Theft Released

A Buena Park homeowner who fatally shot a teenager after the theft of a Halloween decoration gave a brief account of the October shooting moments later to a police dispatcher, insisting he never intended to fire his weapon, according to 911 tapes made public Monday.

Pete Tavita Solomona, his voice virtually flat, told the dispatcher that he had gone looking for whomever had stolen his plastic pumpkin and that his .357 magnum “just went off.”

Solomona has been charged with murder after the Oct. 18 shooting of Brandon Ketsdever, 17.

The shooting seemed to amaze the dispatcher who answered the 911 call.

“They stole your pumpkin and then you shot at ‘em?” the dispatcher asked, sounding incredulous.

“No, it just went off,” Solomona replied. “The gun just went off. . . . I didn’t mean to shoot anybody.”

The dispatcher then explained that Solomona should give himself up to the police officers who by that time had arrived outside his home in response to the shooting.

Solomona’s version of events contradicts claims given by two boys who were with the victim when he was shot.

Both boys maintain Solomona was shouting epithets at them as he stood at arm’s length from Ketsdever’s car, his gun drawn and aimed. The issue over whether Solomona meant to pull the trigger could mean the difference between a conviction for murder or manslaughter.

The conversation between the gunman and the dispatcher followed a 911 call made by Solomona’s wife. She was hysterical as she pleaded for help, explaining that a “male” had been shot.

The dispatcher ordered her to calm down, then asked whether she had seen the shooter.

“My husband did,” Solomona’s wife answered.

Assuming that the husband had seen the shooter, the dispatcher asked her to put him on the line.

“He’s in no shape to talk on the phone now,” she replied. But the dispatcher insisted, and Solomona picked up the phone.

“Pete, what happened?” the dispatcher asked.

“The gun just went off,” he said.

“Whose gun went off?”

“Mine.”

“Your gun went off?”

“Huh?”

“You shot somebody?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“You shot somebody?” she asked again.

“Yes.”

The shooting stunned the quiet Buena Park subdivision where Solomona and Ketsdever, a popular high school athlete, lived. Solomona, 48, is widely known as a devout Mormon and doting grandfather.

Ketsdever and his two friends had been driving around the neighborhood earlier in the evening when they decided as a prank to swipe the 3 1/2-foot, light-up pumpkin from Solomona’s frontyard, according to the boys’ accounts.