Texas boy, 10, admits to fatally shooting man in 2022, won’t face charges, police say
A 10-year-old Texas boy will not face charges for fatally shooting a stranger in 2022, authorities say.
Here's what we know:
Child says he killed Texas man in 2022
According to the Gonzales County sheriff's office, the child's confession came after officials in the Nixon-Smiley Consolidated Independent School District said the boy had referenced the killing and made new threats. That's when school officials involved law enforcement officers, who interviewed the boy at a child advocacy center.
“During the interview the ten year old child described in detail that two years ago he shot and killed a man in a trailer in Nixon, Texas,” a sheriff’s office release said.
Brandon O'Quinn Rasberry fatally shot in 2022
Brandon O'Quinn Rasberry, 32, died in his RV home in Nixon after being fatally shot on Jan. 18, 2022. Until last week, the case had gone cold. But now the 10-year-old child has provided law enforcement with more details about the crime he claims to have committed.
The boy told law officers he didn’t know Rasberry and was not angry at him at the time of the shooting. He was visiting his grandfather at the mobile home park, according to the sheriff’s office, and grabbed a gun from his grandfather’s truck.
“The Child stated he observed Brandon sleeping in his bed and approached Brandon and discharged the firearm into Brandon striking him one time in the head,” the release said. “The child stated as he was leaving the RV he discharged the firearm another time into the couch inside the RV.”
Law enforcement later retrieved the gun from a pawn shop as evidence and collected shell casings from the mobile home park. The boy has undergone mental health evaluation and treatment, according to the sheriff's office.
The office didn't name the child.
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Who's responsible when a child shoots someone?
According to Texas law, the child was too young when the crime occurred to face charges, the sheriff's office said.
“At the time of the murder the juvenile suspect was seven years old, one week shy of his 8th birthday,” the release said. “Therefore charges for murder will not be filed.”
However, authorities have charged the child in connection with a recent incident in which he is accused of threatening another student. The sheriff's office said that threat soon spiraled into the confession to killing Rasberry.
According to the confession, the boy had no known reason to kill Rasberry.
"The child was also asked if he was mad at Brandon for some reason or if Brandon had ever done anything to him to make him mad, the child stated no," the release said.
In some instances, adults are charged after a young child commits a violent act. When a 6-year-old child in Virginia shot a teacher in January 2023, the child's mother was sentenced to two years in prison for felony child neglect.
At a Michigan school in 2000, another 6-year-old child shot and killed classmate Kayla Rolland, who was also 6. Officials never charged the boy with her death. However, a Michigan judge sentenced a man to prison for involuntary manslaughter for storing the gun in a shoe box that was accessible to the boy in the house where they both lived, MLive.com reported.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas boy, 10, admits to fatally shooting man in 2022, police say
