A 10-year-old child in Texas nonchalantly confessed to killing a man when he was only 7 during a fight with one of his classmates, authorities said this week.
The child, who has not been identified, said he shot and killed a sleeping stranger in 2022, providing an answer to a two-year-old murder investigation, police said.
The strange turn of events began last Friday, when the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call from a principal at Nixon Smiley Independent School District, who said a 10-year-old child had threatened to kill another student on the bus ride home the day before.
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When a deputy arrived at the school, officials relayed that the child had claimed to have killed a man two years prior, according to a statement from the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office.
During a forensic interview at a child advocacy center, the 10-year-old was able to recall information “that was consistent with first-hand knowledge” of the unsolved murder of Brandon Raspberry, who was found deceased in his trailer at a vehicle park in 2022, authorities said.
The 10-year-old recalled visiting his grandfather in the RV park in Nixon, Texas where Raspberry’s body was discovered. He told authorities that he retrieved his grandfather’s gun from the glove box of his truck, and entered an RV. In the RV, he came upon a man sleeping, whom he allegedly shot in the head. He also said he fired a shot into the couch before he left the trailer and returned the gun to where he found it, according to police.
The medical examiner estimated that Raspberry was dead for two days before his body was discovered. Authorities could not determine a motive for the killing.
“When asked, the child stated he had never met Brandon, and did not know who he was although he had observed him walking around the RV earlier in the day,” the statement from the Gonzales County Sheriff's office said. “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 child was also able to direct law enforcement to the supposed murder weapon, which his grandfather had since sold to a pawn shop in Seguin, Texas. On Wednesday, authorities were able to match the weapon to shell casings discovered at the scene.
The child was put under an emergency 72-hour detention and brought to a psychiatric hospital in nearby San Antonio, Texas for evaluation and treatment. He has since been released into detention by Gonzales County Juvenile Probation. While the child is too young to face criminal charges for the incident, he was charged with making a Terroristic Threat to another student.
