incident at ernie's pizza

al was mad. brandon was fooling around with al’s girlfriend claudette. that was what al had been told by his friend dennis. actually brandon had never even met claudette. but al did not know that. al got a gun. he found brandon at ernie’s pizza parlor, finishing off a ham and egg grinder with a side of hot fries. al confronted brandon. ignoring brandon’s protestations of innocence regarding claudette, al shot brandon in the heart. brandon slumped in his chair, and then fell to the ground. a few minutes later claudette arrived. ernie had called the police, and al was sitting down at a table staring into space, with ernie standing over him. brandon was still sprawled on the floor. ernie had checked his pulse and found none. informed of what had happened, claudette not only told al that she had never met brandon, but that she did not know where al got off thinking that she, claudette, belonged to him, and that she was “his” girl. just then frank and gloria arrived. frank and gloria expressed dismay at the proceedings and loudly proclaimed how sorry they were for brandon, who had been a great guy and one of their best friends. actually neither frank nor gloria cared two cents about brandon, they were just saying that. they were a couple of hypocrites. to sum up: brandon had no relationship with claudette, proper or otherwise. claudette did not even consider herself al’s girl. frank and gloria, who expressed sorrow at brandon’s demise, did not really like him. actually nobody had ever liked brandon much, not even his mother. so - al was an idiot, brandon was a nonentity, claudette was a cold hearted bitch, dennis was a jerk who had caused the whole thing for no good reason, ernie was just pissed off, and frank and gloria were two-faced hypocrites. given all that, the question is: is brandon dead?