Clerk's firearm kills gun customer
Friday, November 04, 2005
CAROL ROBINSON
Birmingham News staff writer
A single mother of two was shot to death in an apparent accident at a Birmingham pawn shop while shopping for a gun.
Alethia Brewster, 24, had recently worried about her safety, and the safety of her 11-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. Unsavory men, she told her friends, often gathered near her East Lake home, and some had even knocked on the door.
Brewster wanted to put her fears to rest. Instead, she died at the counter of JoJo's Gun & Pawn on Crestwood Boulevard on Wednesday when a store employee was showing her a weapon.
Authorities said Brewster asked to see the gun from an employee's holster. As the clerk handed it to her, the weapon fired. The bullet bore through Brewster's left hand, and then struck her in the chest.
"I'm very angry. Angry and sad," her tearful mother, Frances Brewster, said Thursday. "It wouldn't be possible for me to think something like this could happen."
The pawn shop, which has a marquee out front that advertises, "Guns: Cheaper than a tank of gas," was closed Thursday. A purple floral wreath with black ribbon hung on the front door, and a spray-painted poster in the window said business would resume today.
Police are investigating the shooting, but said it likely will be ruled accidental. Efforts to reach the store owners for comment were unsuccessful.
Brewster's parents sat side by side on the couch Thursday, trying to absorb the shock of her death. A steady stream of friends stopped by their Airport Hills home to console them. They signed a spiral notebook on the coffee table to later remind a numb Frances Brewster that they had been there.
"It shouldn't have never happened the way it did," she said. "I don't want nobody to go through what I am right now."
Family members said Brewster finished work at T-Mobile inside the Riverchase Galleria Wednesday afternoon and, on her way home to get her children, stopped by the pawn shop with a friend to look at a gun.
"Things were beginning to happen" around her home, said her father, William Mahan. "She wanted to get some protection and, with her children there, she didn't want to take a chance. She said she'd rather have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it."
Her friends told Brewster's parents that she'd been considering the purchase for months. Frances Brewster said details were sketchy on the shooting, but said she was told it happened quickly. "The gun went off and when it did, she hit the floor."
She said paramedics rushed her daughter to the hospital, but said she was dead when she left the pawn shop.
Friday, November 04, 2005
CAROL ROBINSON
Birmingham News staff writer
A single mother of two was shot to death in an apparent accident at a Birmingham pawn shop while shopping for a gun.
Alethia Brewster, 24, had recently worried about her safety, and the safety of her 11-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. Unsavory men, she told her friends, often gathered near her East Lake home, and some had even knocked on the door.
Brewster wanted to put her fears to rest. Instead, she died at the counter of JoJo's Gun & Pawn on Crestwood Boulevard on Wednesday when a store employee was showing her a weapon.
Authorities said Brewster asked to see the gun from an employee's holster. As the clerk handed it to her, the weapon fired. The bullet bore through Brewster's left hand, and then struck her in the chest.
"I'm very angry. Angry and sad," her tearful mother, Frances Brewster, said Thursday. "It wouldn't be possible for me to think something like this could happen."
The pawn shop, which has a marquee out front that advertises, "Guns: Cheaper than a tank of gas," was closed Thursday. A purple floral wreath with black ribbon hung on the front door, and a spray-painted poster in the window said business would resume today.
Police are investigating the shooting, but said it likely will be ruled accidental. Efforts to reach the store owners for comment were unsuccessful.
Brewster's parents sat side by side on the couch Thursday, trying to absorb the shock of her death. A steady stream of friends stopped by their Airport Hills home to console them. They signed a spiral notebook on the coffee table to later remind a numb Frances Brewster that they had been there.
"It shouldn't have never happened the way it did," she said. "I don't want nobody to go through what I am right now."
Family members said Brewster finished work at T-Mobile inside the Riverchase Galleria Wednesday afternoon and, on her way home to get her children, stopped by the pawn shop with a friend to look at a gun.
"Things were beginning to happen" around her home, said her father, William Mahan. "She wanted to get some protection and, with her children there, she didn't want to take a chance. She said she'd rather have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it."
Her friends told Brewster's parents that she'd been considering the purchase for months. Frances Brewster said details were sketchy on the shooting, but said she was told it happened quickly. "The gun went off and when it did, she hit the floor."
She said paramedics rushed her daughter to the hospital, but said she was dead when she left the pawn shop.
