The Bay St. Louis high senior had a bad feeling about hosting an after-prom party at her house.
She was afraid fists would fly because of an argument some girls got into when she had an after-prom party a year earlier. She managed to stop that fight at words.
This year, nobody in her circle was having a prom party. She reluctantly decided to go ahead and throw one. But she was right to worry. What happened Saturday night was worse than she could have imagined.
Two Hancock High students are dead Sunday and four were injured, one critically, at the party on a quiet street not far from Bay High and just off U.S. 90. The survivors, between the ages of 15 and 18, were flown to hospitals in New Orleans and Slidell.
Cameron Everett Brand, 19, of Pass Christian is being held as the shooter on murder and aggravated assault charges.
The mother and teenager who hosted the party were in shock Sunday as relatives comforted them on their front porch.
Shooting started without warning
The teenager and her mother recounted for the Sun Herald what happened, but did not want their names used because of the attention it would attract. Vehicles were driving up and down the street on Sunday, where there’s usually little traffic, and slowing to see the scene of the crime.
“We were having a good time,” the 18-year-old said, “until he started shooting. He just started shooting and left without remorse . . . The way he just got in his car and left and went home. He shot six innocent people.
“This happened at my house. I just wanted everybody to have a good time. This will live with me forever.”
The teenager said that she and her mother did not supply alcohol for the party, but teenagers brought their own beverages and many of them were drinking. She and her mother were both patrolling the yard below their elevated home, keeping an eye on the crowd of 60-70 and picking up trash.
They didn’t hear any yelling or other signs of an argument, both said. Their first warning was the percussive bang of a gun. They never saw the gun, but the mother said she heard multiple times, “pow, pow, pow.”
Graduation party plans canceled
The mother’s car had six bullet holes in it and blood stained the gravel driveway and grass. The teenager said she knew of the shooter, but they were not friends. The party was open to any students who decided to attend.
The mother does not know how many shots she heard. The teenager said her friends grabbed her and pulled her into the woods behind the house. When the shooting stopped, she saw someone laying beside her mother’s car and went to give him CPR, she said.
Someone pulled her away, telling her to stop. “He’s dead,” they said.
“I’ve got to live with it forever,” said the young lady, who had recently celebrated her 18th birthday. “It was my party at my house. Everybody expects me to be OK and I can’t be OK.”
She said that she’s canceling plans for a graduation party.
The teenager’s mother has one image burned in her brain: “All I can remember seeing is these four children, laying on the ground, shot.”
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