Authorities in Texas say a 10-year-old boy has confessed to an unsolved 2022 killing, telling investigators that he shot a man he did not know while the victim slept.
Brandon O’Quinn Rasberry, 32, was shot in the head in 2022 while he slept at an RV park in Nixon, Texas, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of San Antonio, investigators said. He had just moved in a few days before.
The boy’s possible connection to the case was uncovered after sheriff’s deputies were contacted on April 12 of this year about a student who threatened to assault and kill another student on a school bus. They learned the boy had made previous statements that he had killed someone two years ago.
The boy was taken to a child advocacy center, where he described for interviewers details of Rasberry’s death “consistent with first-hand knowledge” of the crime, investigators said.
Holy hell. Imagine moving to a new area with a new job. You're starting over, and bam, you're dead because you moved 2 doors down from an 8 year old psychopath who kills you in your sleep.
That's the way I wanna go. Surrounded by family and loved ones? No thanks. Random execution by some kid from the neighbourhood is my jam. I never want to see it coming, though tbf, that's mostly the case.
I had a 7 year old girl brought to the hospital I worked out of at the time, while I was employed as a crisis intervention worker.
Flipping out, screaming, punching, kicking, biting, as they try to secure her on the stretcher. She kicks her mother in the face in the process, bad bloody nose, possibly broken, blood starts pouring out, 7 year old starts giggling and pointing at her mother as this happens.
Imo it boils down to a child needing to feel some semblance of control in their life, and because their brains haven't developed enough to find more constructive ways to do that shit like this happens.
You see this throughout humans all over the world, adults and children alike. Self-determination and the ability to make choices, however small, is important.
And it literally can be as simple as you picking 2 outfits that are appropriate for the day and letting them pick which one to wear. That's not to imply anything about the OP or the ER story...obvs every individual case is unique, and I'm not implying that picking your own underwear can cure psychopathy.
But, things as simple as this can cure neurotypical cases of children acting out if that behavior is rooted in a need for self-determination or control.
I recall reading an AMA on Reddit by a person who worked with child sex offenders (which is just yikes on bikes). They said that usually a child committing an act like this is impulsive rather than an ingrained personality trait or something like that. I wonder if such acts are similar.
What do you even do for something like this? A literal child? Do you lock them up for life? Rehabilitate under close supervision and reassess? Can someone like this even be rehabilitated?
Don't know about US law, but where I live we have a "Preventative Detention Order" - the threshold for it is very high, but it essentially works as a sentence of "until rehabilitated", you are incarcerated until the court decides that you are no longer a threat to the community, even in cases where a life without parole sentence wouldn't be possible. In a world where I am supreme ruler, it'd automatically apply in cases where someone who has a conviction for a violent crime commits another violent crime.
Also, how the hell does an 8 year old get a gun? Surely whoever failed to secure it - or even worse gave it to a minor - would be looking at an accessory change?
Also, how the hell does an 8 year old get a gun? Surely whoever failed to secure it - or even worse gave it to a minor - would be looking at an accessory change?
Stole it from the glovebox of his grandfathers truck, it's in the article.
But even if the glovebox was locked, if you have the keys to get into the truck, you have the keys to open the glovebox.
Well firstly interview all of the child's caregivers. Determine the living conditions the child has experienced for the past several years. Determine what failures of supervision happened that resulted in an 8 year old gaining access to a firearm.
Then remediate unsafe living conditions, provide therapy, and charge whatever people who were responsible for the kid with manslaughter.
I dont know if you are a troll or just an honest sociopath. And i honestly dont care. But to just impulsively call a child "it", and then continue going down such an unfeeling, inhuman line of thought, imo, is morally obtuse and offensive to society as a whole. Your response here is neither welcome nor encouraged. Sincerely, fuck you.
The boy said he had been visiting his grandfather, who lived a few lots away from Rasberry in the RV park. He described the 9 mm pistol and its “dirt and army green” color, and said he took it from the glove box of his grandfather’s truck.
A glove box is not safe storage of a firearm. Considering the grandfather sold the pistol after, I'm going to guess he knew what happened.
Gramps definitely knew what happened, and I'd be surprised if prosecutors didn't go after him too for at least tampering with evidence or whatever.
However, depending on local laws, a glovebox can be considered safe storage for a firearm, so long as the glovebox locks. Not saying that is right or wrong, but my Blue state views it that way.
I disagree (slightly), and would like to point out that many glove boxes ARE LOCKABLE. In such a case, I would deem it viable short term storage. Would def not leave it in there 24/7 but that's just me.
All the comments debating child psychology when the Grandfather kept his gun in a glovebox and then sold it immediately after the murder. Like, what the fuck?!
I don't give a damn what the kid was thinking, that Grandfather is the one we need for justice to be served.
They unfortunately do, but at that age the brain is still partially goo:
According to the National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Murderers, cognitive function develops concrete to abstract between the ages of 12 and 15. This means that a person can genuinely understand that specific behavior brings specific consequences. However, research has shown that a teenager's brain does not resemble an adult's fully matured brain until they reach their early 20's.
Source: Google's summary for "has a 12 year old brain developed enpugh to understand murder
The kid is rotten. While he may still be developing, most kids do not kill strangers in cold blood. He was either already on track to develop into a psychopath, or the murder firmly put him on that path. Note how he got caught because he was bragging about it.
Is it too late to save the kid? Maybe not, it's certainly worth trying. But considering what he did, and the environment he's living in, I don't foresee him getting the dedicated mental resources he needs.
I read things like this and they make reasonable sense, but at the same time I'm fairly sure I remember being much younger than that and still knowing that it'd be wrong to kill someone.
People thinking like a premeditated murderer when is obviously an impulse act that got their hands on a loaded gun and a brain full of movies tell him that's for pointing and shooting.
He probably did it because that's what guns do you point them at heads and click them.
Then shit got way more real than he ever imagined. And it's too late now. Imagine "oh shit I'm in trouble" of kids doing stupid stuff. Except this time mommy can't help. Nobody can't help.
Though shit for a 7 year old, I almost can't believe he kept it in for more than two years
The boy said his grandfather later sold the pistol. Deputies located it at a pawn shop. Shell casings from the previous crime scene were matched to the gun, investigators said.
Even considering that, I have concerns about how the police questioning of a ten year old was handled.
It says he was taken to a child advocacy center. Whatever that is
I assume it was done properly though, messing up a murder investigation when it's basically a slam dunk would be pretty damning if it turns out they mishandled it.
A child advocacy center has specially trained staff (therapists) who do forensic interviews and provide therapy, mainly to kids enduring the aftermath of abuse and neglect. They work closely with the police and the prosecutor to get the case resolved and many also provide therapy dogs to go to court with the kids.
I haven't heard of them interviewing a kid suspected of a crime but perhaps it is their protocol for a kid this young.
You know this probably wouldn't have happened had gramps kept the gun on him, if he wanted it as a truck gun probably for "self-defense", or whatever, and then just like. put it in an actual combo safe in his house once he got home. Even if you're evaluating this from like, what I'm presuming to be the motivations behind gramps keeping a gun in his truck, it doesn't make any fuckin sense. a truck gun is totally useless, how the fuck is he gonna, presumably shut off his car, use his car key to open it up, then access his firearm in a timely manner in the 1 in a million chance he needs it? Not to mention if someone steals his car, free gun, boom.
What a dipshit. This guy shouldn't be allowed to have a firearm.
I'm not usually for capital punishment, especially for minors, but I think putting this one down is more akin to euthanasia than murder. I really don't believe that someone who managed to do this and keep quiet for two years at that age can be rehabilitated.
At that age they have no understanding what "dead" means. We do not know if the child kept quiet or if just no one took his ramblings seriously and kids that young often have no words for what happened especially if it is dramatic, the kid might have made drawings instead that went unnoticed. We also do not know if the gun owner threatened the child to stay quiet.
Please let people who know children and their mental capabilities and have experience in treating them as is needed do their job and stay away from making such brutal assumptions. It is ok to not know things, that's why specialists exist. It is not about "believing" when it comes to a decision of life or death, feelings need to stay back. It is ok to find a child murdering someone disturbing without following a gut feeling for what should be done.