Prosecutors will decide whether to file charges against him. Under a recent
state law, owners of firearms can be charged with negligence if they fail to
keep weapons secure from children.
Burns, however, reacted with surprise when told the man may face charges.
Although she does not keep guns herself, she said she has no anger. "I mean, it
was an accident," she said. "I'm not blaming anyone."
She recounted how the owner of the gun called her early Wednesday to comfort
her. He was so upset about the accident, he could barely speak, she said. Burns
tried to comfort him.
No one answered the door Wednesday at the home where the shooting took place.
Gail Shallowhorn, crime victims coordinator for the Los Angeles city attorney's
office, said that long-term counseling will be offered to both boys involved.
"They are considered victims," she said.
For Burns, a Mississippi native who took in Levante when most of her children
were nearly grown, the shooting was a reprise of her daughter's slaying less
than two years ago.
Mardess Brooks was 25 when she became the unintended victim of a drive-by
shooting. She was riding in the passenger seat of a relative's car, Burns said.
It takes Burns a moment to calculate the year of this shooting, but she
remembers the day without hesitation: "Nov. 22," she said, "the day before
Thanksgiving."
Burns said friends and family marveled at her calmness then too. Getting angry
is just not her way, she said.
Levante, however, handled his mother's death differently.
Burns had been the chief parent figure in his life--he called her "Mama-Granny,"
Burns said. But the boy was also close to his mother, and after her death, he
got into fights at school.
For a while, "he had a whole lot of angry in him," Burns said.
But Levante's mood had improved recently, and lately he confided in Burns,
talking sometimes of his mother, she said. Burns let Levante cry whenever he
felt like it, she said.
Burns straightened up on the couch, animated for a moment as she talked about
how close they had become. Then she hunched. "I can't be angry. I am just
sorry," she said.
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