A 10-year-old South Texas boy being questioned for allegedly threatening to kill a classmate told investigators that he killed a man for no reason two years ago, according to law enforcement officials. But according to state law, he can’t be charged in that crime.
The unidentified child told school officials in the Nixon-Smiley Consolidated Independent School District that he had shot and killed a man in 2022 as he was being questioned for allegedly threatening to kill a student on a bus last week, according to a Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office news release.
The child told investigators first-hand information about the shooting death of 32-year-old Brandon O’Quinn Rasberry on Jan. 18, 2022, in Nixon, Texas, which is located approximately one hour east of San Antonio.
The child said he was visiting his grandfather at an RV park that day, a few lots from where Rasberry was living, the release stated. He told investigators he took a pistol from the glove box of his grandfather’s truck, entered the RV belonging to Rasberry, and shot him once, killing him.
The child told investigators he had never met Rasberry before and had seen him walking around the RV earlier in the day.
“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.
On April 12, investigators found the gun used in Rasberry’s murder at a pawn shop in a nearby town, and eventually matched shell casings from the scene with the gun used in the crime. But because the child was under the age of 10 at the time of the crime, he can’t be charged in connection to the 2022 homicide, the release said, citing the Texas Penal Code.
“Finding out it was a 7-year-old that committed the murder, a senseless murder at that, it’s just tragic. It’s kind of hard to wrap your head around,” Jonathan Fojtik, the homicide victim’s brother, told CBS affiliate KENS. “Brandon was a loving person. He’d give the shirt off his back for anyone.”
The child has since been charged in connection with the threat made against his classmate and is in juvenile detention awaiting a court date, the release said.