Family mourns Minneapolis boy killed in apparent accidental shooting

The parents of a 15-year-old north Minneapolis boy who was shot and killed in his home as he and a brother apparently played with a gun are planning a funeral.

The boy's stepmother, Temeka Wren, says the family had just finished dinner when she told her boys to put their clothes in the washing machine and get ready for school the next morning.

"He was laughing, cracking up like 'I am, I am,' " Wren said. "Always laughing so much, always playing so much. And now you're playing with a damn gun."

She says Brandon Wren and his 14-year-old brother were playing with a gun when it discharged. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner reported Tuesday that Brandon died of a gunshot wound to the neck at his home late Sunday night.

"I had to hold one son while he died, and then I've got to hold another son to make it through this," Wren said.

Wren says the boys found the gun in nearby Folwell Park and brought it home in a backpack. Police were called to the home on the 4100 block of Fremont Avenue North on a report of a shot fired.

"Officers responded and located a juvenile male who was deceased from what appeared to be a gunshot wound," said Minneapolis police spokesperson John Elder. "We interviewed people at the residence and preliminary evidence yields that this may be an accidental shooting."

Wren says three other siblings and their father were also in the house at the time of the shooting. She was on the phone with the police dispatcher as she held Brandon.

"And then I told the police, 'Never mind,' because I felt his last breath in my arms, so no reason to rush. Please send the coroner — pick my son off my floor," she said.

It has been a difficult several weeks for the family. In late April, Brandon's sister, Tiffany Scott, died of cancer. The family buried her Saturday.

Brandon was a freshman at Patrick Henry High School and played basketball in a Minneapolis police league.