Attire called spark in slaying at Columbus Easter party

COLUMBUS - A woman who called 911 after a fatal shooting at an Easter party told a police dispatcher she had retrieved a gun to prove a point and it had gone off.

The woman told the dispatcher that she shot her niece, apparently referring to a 19-year-old woman killed during a fight. Police say it started over a skimpy Easter outfit - jeans shorts and a green T-shirt tied around her midriff.

"I just shot my niece," the woman says calmly at the beginning of the 33-second call, released yesterday.

"I didn't mean to do it," the woman said. "We were arguing, I tried to get my gun to prove a point, they got the rifle with me, and it went off."

Asked about the location of her niece, the woman said bluntly, "In the car. I think she's dead."

The woman does not give her name but calls herself the victim's aunt.

Family members say Evelyn Burgess, the woman arrested in the shooting, was referred to as the victim's aunt, although she was her older second cousin.

Police said Ms. Burgess got into a fight with Ms. Pickens over her attire, then shot her outside Ms. Burgess' house in Columbus Sunday night. Ms. Pickens died at a hospital early the next day.

Family members of both women said yesterday that Ms. Pickens' style of dressing was well-known among relatives.

Danielle Pickens often wore short skirts to holiday gatherings hosted by Evelyn Burgess, said Ms. Pickens' sister, Ralinda Pickens, and her uncle, Tico Pickens.

"The way she was dressed that day is the way she always dressed, and everybody knew that," said Tico Pickens, 33. "It wasn't like she meant any harm toward nobody by doing it. It was just comfortable to her."

Ms. Burgess, 42, is charged with one count of murder.

Franklin County Municipal Judge William Pollitt set Ms. Burgess' bond at $500,000 during a court appearance yesterday.

Ms. Burgess did not say anything at the hearing.

At her house yesterday, her husband, Kevin Burgess, said his wife was doing all right, but he declined to comment further.

Danielle, who went by Danny, once dressed like a tomboy, then one day tried on a short skirt she liked and started dressing differently. "The first time she put on a cute little skirt, I guessed she liked it, and she dressed like that ever since," said Ralinda Pickens, 20.

She said events escalated quickly at the Easter party at Ms. Burgess' house.

Ms. Burgess was angry at Danielle over her outfit and accused her of flaunting her looks around men at the party, including Ms. Burgess' husband, Ralinda Pickens said. A fight broke out, with Evelyn Burgess and Danielle struggling with a baseball bat. Ralinda Pickens got her sister outside and prepared to drive her home.

Ms. Burgess ran up with a gun, reached inside the car, pulled Danielle by the hair, and shot her as she tried to seek shelter under her older sister, Ralinda Pickens said.