The victim, Brandon Rasberry, is shown in a photo from his Facebook page. An aerial view of the Lazy J Ranch and RV Park is seen in a video posted on its Facebook page in 2018.
A child, who is now 10 years old, Texas is facing charges for making a threat to kill another student on a school bus. Additionally, the child allegedly admitted to school officials after the incident that he had fatally shot a sleeping stranger years ago, just before turning 8, according to authorities.
According to the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office, there has been a shocking development in the unsolved January 2022 murder murder of 32-year-old Brandon O’Quinn Rasberry. It started with a school bus dispute on April 11 involving the 10-year-old boy and another student in the Nixon-Smiley Consolidated Independent School District. School officials contacted authorities the next day, not only about the alleged threat to kill.
“When the Deputy arrived, school officials informed the Deputy that the child made a statement about shooting and killing a man two years ago,” the sheriff’s office said Thursday, pointing out that they cannot bring murder charges under Texas law because a “child does not have criminal culpability until they reach the age of ten years old.”
The juvenile faces a terroristic threat charge related to the bus incident, however.
Authorities said that, while being questioned about the alleged bus threat, the student began to describe Rasberry’s death at the Lazy J RV Park, which happened just four days after the victim moved there.
Investigators found that Rasberry had been shot in the head, but they did not find any clues about the killer through cellphone data. Authorities say the person who killed Rasberry was a stranger to him.
“Investigators determined, based on the information the child told the school, that the child may have knowledge about the murder of Brandon. The child was taken to a child advocacy center for a forensic interview, during which the ten-year-old child provided a detailed description of shooting and killing a man in a trailer in Nixon, Texas, two years ago,” the sheriff’s office said, highlighting that the juvenile had confirmed details only the killer would know.
The child reportedly confessed that, on Jan. 16, 2022, when visiting his grandpa’s place in the Lazy J RV Park, he took a gun from the glove box of a relative’s truck, went to Rasberry’s RV, and shot him in the head as he slept. Then, the child allegedly put the firearm back in the truck as if nothing had happened.
The suspected shooter admitted that Rasberry was a stranger he happened to see outside that day and that Rasberry had not done anything to make the child angry, according to investigators.
The child said he had never met Brandon and didn't know who he was, even though he had seen him walking around the RV earlier. The child also denied being angry at Brandon or that Brandon had ever done something to make him mad.
The sheriff’s office found the gun at a pawn shop the day after the child told them during the interview that his grandfather had pawned the gun. Afterwards, the 10-year-old was evaluated at a San Antonio-area psychiatric hospital before being put in juvenile detention for the bus threat case.
Brandon Rasberry’s name was listed. obituary The date of death listed for Brandon Rasberry is Jan. 19, 2022, which is the day after he was found dead. The owner of Lazy J RV Park found Rasberry dead on Jan. 18, 2022, after Rasberry's employer realized that two days had passed since Rasberry last showed up for work.
Rasberry’s girlfriend Brandy Kamer spoke with the Gonzales Inquirer. spoke with the Gonzales Inquirer She expressed her surprise that someone as thoughtful, intelligent, and hard-working as Rasberry was shot to death for no apparent reason.
Kamer reportedly said, “We hope they find who did this and justice is served.”
The sheriff’s office claims to know who killed Rasberry, but justice is another story.