At 18, Zachary Burkard was too young to buy a handgun from a licensed gun store, and he was an admitted drug dealer with mental health issues, court records show. So he went to the website of 80P Builder, a seller of “ghost gun” parts with no serial numbers, bought a gun kit and assembled a complete pistol himself.
About two months later, Burkard watched a fistfight unfold between two schoolmates at a friend’s house. He entered the Springfield, Va., home’s garage and began shooting. Ersheen Elaiaiser and Calvin Van Pelt, both 17, were killed by bullets from Burkard’s homemade ghost gun. Neither of the victims was armed. Van Pelt was shot twice in the back as he ran away.
In court, an audio recording was played of the 2021 shooting, while the parents of both victims listened in agony. “You can hear our son, saying, ‘Hey cool it,’ like ‘Fight’s over, we good,’” Calvin’s father, Michael Winfield, said. “That’s Calvin. I mean, even in the face of death, he was being a leader, trying to calm things down.”
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