Frantic Son Told 911 of Shootings in House

Brandon Smith was awakened by the sound of gunshots and his sister’s screams. He found her lying on the staircase of their Aliso Viejo home, bleeding badly. Then he found his father on the living room floor. He had been shot too, and he wasn’t breathing.

In a frantic call to police, a confused and frightened Smith, 20, also told a dispatcher he could hear someone growling and thought the shooter was still lurking inside the house.

“I don’t know what to do,” Smith said during his 911 call Saturday morning. “My sister is laying on the staircase, my dad is laying on the floor. I was in my bedroom sleeping, and all of a sudden, I heard shots fired in the house.” Brandon Smith escaped unharmed. His sister, Christina, 22, and father, Vernon, 45, didn’t. They were killed in a rampage by their neighbor William Freund, 19. Freund left the Smith house in the southern Orange County neighborhood and fired at a home across the street. He tried to shoot a neighbor, but the gun jammed. He walked home and killed himself.

Brandon Smith’s 911 call, released Tuesday by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, offers the first eyewitness account of what happened inside the home after Freund entered, dressed in a cape and mask, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, and harboring a motive that has so far eluded investigators.

The rampage was the last act of a young man desperate for friendship and relief from Asperger’s syndrome, a variant of autism that hampers the ability to interact socially, which Freund said he had.

Outside the Smith home Tuesday, Juanita Guerrero, cousin of Vernon Smith’s 43-year-old widow, Denise, read a statement while flanked by the widow’s brothers and other relatives.

“Vern and Christina were and will always be a part of our family. They were a part of this community and contributed joy and light to those around them. Their passing makes no sense and serves no purpose. They have been taken from us, and what we want is peace for everyone that has been touched by this tragedy.”

She also made a plea for stronger gun regulations. “What makes no sense are the laws which demand that for someone to obtain a driver’s license and operate a car, they need to pass several tests to make sure they’re competent,” she said “In contrast, to purchase a gun you simply have to walk into a store, present ID and wait a few days. Almost anyone can do that.”

Freund’s parents have not spoken publicly since the shootings and were secluded inside their home Tuesday. They let in a few visitors but did not open the door to reporters.

Freund began plotting his suicide and a “Terror Campaign to hurt those that have hurt me” weeks before the shooting, according to his postings on wrongplanet.net, a website used by people with Asperger’s.

On Oct. 15 or 16, he filled out an application to buy the Remington shotgun at Saddleback Valley Gun Center, a small storefront gun shop in Laguna Niguel, according George Heuneman, the 68-year-old owner. The gun shop is about six miles from Freund’s house.

The weapon cost about $300, and Freund paid in cash, Heuneman said. Freund told the shop owner he needed it to protect his home and to take on camping trips. “He looked like a perfectly clean-cut 19-year-old kid,” Heuneman recalled.

On Oct. 19, Freund reported his purchase on wrongplanet.net, saying he “bought my gun from a bunch off old farts at a gun center.”

Freund returned to pick up the gun Oct. 25 or 26, waiting for the state’s mandatory 10-day waiting period to pass, Heuneman said.

The application process went without a hitch, he said, and Freund passed the federal and state background checks.

“Everything came back clean,” Hueneman said. “They told me to deliver the gun.”

Hueneman said Freund asked what kind of ammunition to use, then took Hueneman’s advice and bought $5 worth of birdshot and a cleaning kit.

Heuneman said he’s fairly certain that Freund asked about a target range and that he recommended On Target indoor range in Laguna Niguel, as he does all his customers.

“We point out all the safety features to them. We make them as familiar with the gun as we can before they take it out of the store,” he said.

Freund was in the shop only on those two occasions, Heuneman said.

In a 12-hour period beginning Thursday, Freund logged on to a website for gun enthusiasts, thefiringline.com, and asked questions about his new Remington, according to Web master Rich Lucibella. One question was where in California he could shoot buckshot at a range.

On Friday, about 1 a.m., another member responded that novices should “Start with birdshot first then after you are used to the gun then work your way up to heavier loads.”

The next day, Freund shot the Smiths and himself.

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Times staff writer Mai Tran contributed to this report.