By Adriana M. Chávez / El Paso Times

10/17/2008

EL PASO -- Twelve-year-old Brandon Lee Garcia was so excited Saturday that he couldn't stop telling his mother that he had gotten his first kiss from a girl.

"I kissed her," his sister said he told their mother in a quiet almost sheepish kind of way.

But by Tuesday, Brandon lay fighting for his life at Thomason Hospital with a gunshot wound to his head

It was a fight he would eventually lose Wednesday.

Thursday, his sister, Yvonne Garcia-Earsley, said Brandon's organs would be donated and would help seven people continue to live. Among them is a 6-year-old child in Dallas who received Brandon's heart.

"He was like my son," said Garcia-Earsley, 31, in a phone interview Thursday as she and her parents made arrangements for Brandon's funeral.

Garcia-Earsley said she was happy that Brandon got to experience getting kissed before he died. "My mother told me he was happy about getting kissed, but he did not want to tell anybody," she said.

Brandon, a sixth-grade student at Hurshel Antwine School, was found shot in the head around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in his home in the 3500 block of Whitetail Deer.

Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jesse Tovar said Brandon was pronounced dead at 3:09 p.m. Wednesday at Thomason Hospital.

Sheriff's deputies continued their investigation of the incident, Tovar said.

Garcia-Earsley said her brother had received the gun as a gift from her father, Velen Garcia Sr., who had taught Brandon gun-safety skills.

Brandon might have been wearing a mask and costume he had planned to wear to his school's haunted house when he began examining the gun, she said.

"He might have been trying to see if it was loaded, and he couldn't see because of the mask and he didn't know there was a round in the chamber," Garcia-Earsley said.

She said the misconception bothering her family most about the incident is rumors that Brandon committed suicide.

"He didn't do it on purpose," Garcia-Earsley said, her voice breaking with emotion. "He had plans already. Who has plans when they try to commit suicide? He was getting ready to watch a movie with my parents. He had a lot to live for."

Garcia-Earsley remembers her brother as an outgoing boy who was proud of his Native American heritage and who was trying to learn how to play the trumpet to join his school's band.

"He loved to laugh. He had a beautiful laugh," Garcia-Earsley said. "He was my kids' favorite uncle. I have a son who is 7 and a daughter who is 4, and he loved playing with them."

She said Brandon had been trying to get in shape to join his school's football team next year and had asked for diet recommendations and a workout regimen from his school's football coach.

Brandon's classmates received word about his death Thursday morning, said Stacy Sonnier, principal at Hurshel Antwine School. Up to 25 counselors were made available to students, Sonnier said.

"He was very popular and made very good grades," Sonnier said. "He was very polite and had character beyond reproach."

Sonnier said Brandon was the school football team's manager and participated in the campus' Crime Stoppers program.

Students and staff at the school have begun collecting money to help Brandon's family pay for funeral expenses, Sonnier said.