Friends and Family Gather to Mourn 17-Year-Old Boy

ANAHEIM — A community shaken by the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy after the theft of a plastic pumpkin gathered to remember him Saturday--and to understand why his life was cut short.

More than 500 people gathered at the church where Brandon Ketsdever was baptized to mourn the popular Kennedy High School athlete, known for his sense of humor and clever pranks.

Ketsdever was one of three teenagers who stole a Halloween decoration Monday night from the front yard of a Buena Park homeowner. The man later confronted them in front of his house, shooting Ketsdever in the head with a .357 magnum handgun. Pete Tavita Solomona, 47, said the gun went off accidentally, but prosecutors filed murder charges against him.

“Let Brandon not have died in vain. . . . We must get beyond the anger,” said Debbie Ketsdever, a relative. She encouraged friends and family “to love easily, to laugh easily and to forgive easily.”

His grandmother, Marie Ketsdever of La Habra, said she has struggled to understand what might have led Solomona to do what he did. “I’ve heard that Mr. Solomona is a nice and gentle person. I, too, am a gentle person. I’ve heard that Mr. Solomona is a grandparent. I, too, am a grandparent,” she said.

Ketsdever and two friends had been circling the neighborhood Monday night looking for decorations to snatch so they could leave them on their friends’ frontyards as a prank, police said. Solomona had noticed that his lighted plastic pumpkin was missing and a few minutes later saw the teenagers’ car pull toward his house. Solomona ran out of his house waving a loaded revolver, then fired it into the car, striking Ketsdever, according to police. Friends and relatives said the shooting is completely out of character for Solomona, whom they describe as a devout Mormon, loving grandfather and kindly neighbor.

Ketsdever’s friends lined up for more than an hour to say goodbye after the memorial service at Knott Avenue Christian Church. He was described as a charming person who easily won over adults and peers alike with his sensitivity and brand of humor.

His mother, Jessie Ketsdever, recalled how he once slipped a piece of paper into her dress pocket when he was about 4 years old.

“It was a [drawing of a] heart to mom,” she said. “It was the simple things he did that made him special.”