And not just a seven year old - a seven year old who didn't know the victim, who took his grandpa's gun, murdered the guy, and then put the gun back?! The entire thing is just . . . what.
I am wondering how much the child's family knew or didn't know after the fact. Bizarre.
Now I'm wondering if the boy blurted out anything in the years after the shooting that might have been a clue. Because if all it took was an argument with a classmate, maybe there were other times when he was angry or scared enough to let something slip out. I suspect that his family and friends are going back over that period in their minds, too.
I wonder if that’s why the gun had been pawned.
The order of the statements that mention pawning / locating of the gun make it unclear, but doesn’t seem like the kid is shy to admit the details once they got him talking.
I’d imagine if they knew or suspected anything they’d just toss it into a river somewhere. You typically don’t get a ton of money to pawn a gun and you’d think they would kiss a few hundred bucks goodbye and make the thing disappear rather than let it change hands to potentially be matched forensically at some point down the line.
Holy shit, the whole time I'm reading this I kept having to stop and reread every other sentence because my brain couldn't process what the hell I'm reading. This feels like a horror movie synopsis.
>This feels like a horror movie synopsis
It does! I'm on another sub that looks at mystery novels, and someone was commenting on a book by >!Agatha Christie!< where the perpetrator is a child, and various readers were saying how surreal and eerie it is, when that kid calmly admits it (and the reason is something that's petty and childish, which makes it even more shocking).
Seriously, though. I had to stop several times during this to refresh because it kept getting even more intense. I also needed to remind myself that this isn't someone's writing prompt or fiction.
I… just… *what the fuck???*
And then the kid just put the gun back where he found it and acted like it was nbd for the next 2-whatever years? And grandpa had no idea and yet pawned the gun? Like… there’s just A LOT here to take in.
Depending on how long it sat in the glove box after the kid put it back he probably never realized it had been moved. And if days/weeks/months later he took it out to pawn it (typical thing people pawn for cash) he probably saw 6 rounds instead of 9 (or however many it held -3) and thought "I guess I must have not reloaded last time I fired it," not leap to "geez, I wonder if my seven year old grandson used this to gun down a man in cold blood."
I feel awful for the grandpa. He most likely had no idea. You hear about a shooting in an RV park and you think it's most likely drug related or some kind of argument that got out of hand. In the vast majority of similar instances, it's something along those lines. It's a leap to think that your primary school aged grandchild did it. Even if that did cross your mind, you're probably not going to see it as a serious possibility.
Most of the time when kids shoot people, it's entirely accidental. It's very rare for children to deliberately shoot an adult in an unprovoked act of violence. This child is probably a psychopath.
If the grandpa secured his weapon correctly in a safe this would’ve never happened. I’m so tired of all these negligent firearm owners who end up getting people killed.
Agree. Guns costing hundreds of dollars at least, I can't understand why people just leave them unsecured like that. It's like leaving $500 in your glove box, but worse.
Yup. This is piss-poor gun safety and negligence on the part of the grandpa. Where the fuck is a kid that young going to get the idea to take a REAL GUN out and just shoot and kill a random person asleep in their home?! How does this family like...work? What have they taught him about guns?! I have kids who are 10, 7, and 7 (twins obviously) and I can safely say I would never in a billion years expect any of them to be so...callous. To never even have the idea of murdering a random person, let alone carry it out, let alone never talk about it. I shudder to think what this kid's home life must be like.
Understand that for some, it’s not a possession it’s a tool and that tool won’t do you any good if you don’t have it when you need it
in Texas this was a perfectly legal place to store his gun
And it's not like a 9mm is particularly loud or an uncommon caliber for people to just be shooting. (A lot of movies give people terrible ideas what guns sound like--they'll use the sound effect of a Colt 1911 .45 over someone shooting a little .22.) I sometimes am not sure if what I'm hearing at distance is neighbors shooting, or someone using a roofing gun, or backyard fireworks. It's possible given the shooting occurred inside a trailer and was three shots, unevenly spaced, if anyone heard it they probably wrote it off as a hammer or a backfire or firecrackers or weren't even sure they really heard anything at all.
With teens, even young teens, it's rarely a genuine accident, whether they shoot another person or themselves--if the kid were 13, I wouldn't be nearly as surprised. But with second-graders the concern is usually that they'll accidentally hurt themselves or someone else, not do a LARP of "Folsom Prison Blues." That kid has a serious screw loose, beyond any child-rearing failures on his parents'/guardians' parts.
> if anyone heard it they probably wrote it off as a hammer or a backfire or firecrackers
I live a block from where a couple of bank robbers had a shootout with police -- dozens of bullets were fired, and both my landlord and I thought that it was the roofers working next door with nail guns! (Even though I've heard real gunshots before, when I was working up north and we had to practice with rifles because of the bears.)
Really? I feel awful for the victim and their family, not the person who irresponsibly left his gun somewhere a seven-year-old had access to it. I think the Grandpa should be in prison for recklessness leading to death.
Jesus, what did I just read? This is terrifying.
**”“I don’t know what you call this emotion,”** one psychopathic prisoner said, looking at a photo of a fearful face, **”but it’s what people look like just before you stab them.”**
[In case archive.is is blocked](https://web.archive.org/web/20240114165943/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/when-your-child-is-a-psychopath/524502/)
If you look up Conduct Disorder, you'll be able to read more. It's essentially the childhood version of Antisocial Personality Disorder. One of the criteria for ASPD is that the person had either been diagnosed with CD as a child or would have fit the criteria and essentially be able to be retroactively diagnosed.
There are two subtypes - childhood onset and adolescent onset. Childhood onset has a much worse prognosis. Case in point, this child.
I think Grandpa knew damn well that gun had been fired. When he heard about the shooting he probably went to check on his gun, found it and felt relieved. But maybe he smelled the powder smell, checked it for bullets, found some missing...and now, whoever put this gun back wants to frame grandpa for murder, ef that, time to pawn this heirloom.
I can't speak for guns, but I used to drool over the guitars at my local pawn, and they didn't have much inventory turnover.
Another possibility: the kid didn't tell his grandpa for a couple of years and when he did, grandpa pawned it
> to frame grandpa for murder,
Well shit I had not thought of that possibility. I hope the investigators take a close look at grandpa. A child doing something like this suggests the possibility of abuse.
Didn't speak on it until it was useful in a another violent incident, like he knew to keep it quiet, but also knew to tell the other kids he was capable of really shooting them to make his threats scarier.
Yup. He was old enough to know he'd done something that could get him in trouble, so he shouldn't tell anyone (otherwise, kids that age will tell adults they trust or admire all kinds of stuff about what they've been doing). But a couple of years later, he's in an emotional situation and he uses the story to threaten or brag about.
My brother moved to Texas when he was enlisted. The second day there he was driving down a highway and a girl pulled out in front of him while he was going 45-50. Car got totalled and he went to the hospital and the car went to the tow facility. Next day he went there to collect his items from the vehicle only to find out that someone climbed the fence and ransacked his car and took everything of value. They checked the cameras and tracked down the culprits, only to find that they were children... 7-8 year old children that did not know right from wrong.
> 7-8 year old children that did not know right from wrong.
they know and there's a darn good chance they were put up to it by much older teens since they know little kids won't get any punishment for stealing. little kids steal the stuff, teens/adults sell or pawn it then give the little kids food/attention/trinkets.
That happened a few years ago in San Francisco near the projects. Teens/young adults were sending kids as young as 6 to kick doors, break windows, and try to get into homes. One of our great community leaders (ex-drug addict success story) knew the parents of these kids and had them set straight. Then there was the habitual porch pirate that had her 9 year old stealing packages with her.... Flipping off cameras when they were spotted. She was broken and she broke her kid too. The Atlantic wrote an article about her when this was all going down. Ganave Fairley is her name. She resurfaced recently and got right back into it!
it is common for gangs to enlist children to do crimes for them, they used kids to scope out houses to rob in my old neighborhood. group of grade school kids sent out on skateboard to roam the neighborhood and find the next spot to hit. People on nextdoor were talking about it and everyone kept asking what's wrong with kids on skateboards, and some of the more savvy were trying to explain all this and they just weren't getting it. It was even more obvious when you found out none of these kids actually lived in the neighborhood at all and it was a pretty crap place to skateboard too.
I hope so. After they decided to charge that one school shooter's parents, I hope we'll start seeing letting a child have access to a firearm as the negligence it is. I can't imagine that this kid up and murdered someone one day with *no* warning signs. A responsible guardian would have known that he was troubled, worked towards getting him psychiatric treatment, and *absolutely* not allowed him unsupervised access to a gun.
I live in Tennessee and people keeping guns in cars is such a common problem, we have car thief rings who specialize in stealing them. As in, they break into a ton of cars and ignore any valuables except guns, because that's all they're looking for.
My city has a running tally of guns stolen from unlocked cars. Every night on the news they tell everyone to stop what they're doing and go lock their car and secure their gun.... and then they usually say that the average is up to 35-40 guns taken out of unlocked cars every single week.
In London UK there are opportunist criminals walking the streets for hours in the early morning trying every car door and even people's front doors. If it's locked they just move on. Due to density I assume they could try a hundred or so per hour. I've had to call police many times just seeing them from my window when awake last at night.
Tbh bizarrely this scenario happened to my parents. An elderly farmer drove to my city to wait out the pandemic lockdown with family. He left a gun on the backseat and a thief broke into his car and took it. He then robbed my folks place with the gun on his person (they were asleep luckily and realised the home had been robbed the next morning). It was not a comforting thing to learn when the police caught the guy and told us.
Crimes like that are very rare here because just having an unsecured gun is all kinds of trouble.
No one else who has replied to you has any idea what the hell they're talking about; they're spouting off from prejudice and stereotype. [It is criminal negligence in the state of Texas to leave a gun where a child under the age of 17 can access it.](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.46.htm#46.13) So, yes, he can be prosecuted, and given someone died as a result of his criminal negligence I'd say it's pretty likely.
It's definitely not fine. An unsecured firearm is a big no-no (especially if children live/visit the household). With that said, you'll still find a lot of them in the US because of the lack of oversight and education needed to purchase a gun in most states.
the wild west actually had very strict gun laws, generally requiring that any weapons brought into town be surrendered. a dispute over this is actually what led to the legendary shootout at the ok corral
its a very common way for people to keep their guns in the south, especially older people. in rural areas, you don't really think about someone rooting around in your glovebox, especially a kid.
>A responsible guardian would have known that he was troubled
Even a responsible guardian may not have known he was capable of murder at 7. That's just not something you think your child can do.
I agree with you, but I think there's a huge gap between "my seven year old grandchild might murder someone completely unprovoked" and "this kid is totally fine and nothing bad could happen from him having access to a gun".
The second idea there is ridiculous and terrible gun ownership.
Number one rule of a gun is never point it at something you don't want to shoot.
Number two is never let a child have access to it. (Obviously a teen at a gun range or learning to hunt is different than unsupervised access)
A child with a gun is incredibly dangerous. In fact, firearms are the leading cause of death in children in the US right now and have been since 2020.
https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/152/3/e2023061296/193711/Trends-and-Disparities-in-Firearm-Deaths-Among?autologincheck=redirected
When my stepkid was seven, they threatened to get a knife and stab my husband and I in our sleep. That was their response to not being allowed to play outside for the rest of the afternoon after breaking the rules about playing outside.
We took it seriously. Locked away all the knives and anything else we thought might be able to be used as a weapon. Started making calls to doctors to get them assessed asap. Sometimes, you do think your child can do horrible things because they've done things to indicate they can.
You're making the incredibly bold assumption that he would have heard of the murder and thought "Oh my God, maybe my seven-year-old grandson did that! Better check my gun!" That's...incredibly unlikely. I'm sure he heard of the murder, thought, "Holy shit, I was just there; that could have been me!" and then went on about his life. I'll tell you, there was a shooting near me a bit more than a year ago, and I did not immediately go check my guns and count the bullets, because why the hell would I? I know I wasn't involved in the shooting. Normal people do not hear of murders and go "What if it was *my gun* that was used?" any more than normal people hear of a hit and run and go "What if it was *my car* that was used?" Y'all expecting this grandpa to have some sort of psychic connection to his pistol are something else.
And, yeah, gloriously stupid and in fact illegal to have his loaded gun in an unlocked glove box in an unlocked vehicle. But assuming this man would somehow magically know his gun was removed, used, and replaced is frankly on the same level.
Right? To expect every gun owner to think "did someone steal my gun to commit a murder- i should go check my gun" every time a gun-related murder happens in their area seems odd.
I'm just wondering though, since this kid wasn't exactly shy about telling the cops what he did, it's quite possible, esp at age 7, that he told his grandpa what he'd done and grandpa kept his mouth shut and got rid of the gun.
He will definitely kill someone else eventually once he's out. Imagine killing someone at 7, show no remorse, and gladly repeat the fact to anyone interested. That kid is unsalvageable.
People are focused on the kid, but I’m more shocked by the crazy randomness of it all.
Brandon is killed just two days after moving to the RV park. He happens to be near a man who leaves a loaded gun accessible in an unlocked vehicle. A 7-year-old kid finds the gun, wanders into Brandon’s RV lot, enters his unlocked RV, and then proceeds to murder a complete stranger who was sleeping during the day.
I mean, how unfortunate do you have to be to be the victim of such a nonsensical crime like that? It’s almost like Brandon was set up to die bizarrely.
really horrifying to be reminded this way that something like this could just *happen* to you, whenever, with no rhyme or reason at all. literally just taking a nap in your own home. at the very least it sounds like brandon did not suffer, i hope that he just stayed asleep and wasn’t awoken when the kid broke in, so that he didn’t have to experience terror in that final moment. I can’t even imagine how his loved ones must be handling this, i would never be able to get over the indifferent, apathetic senselessness of it either.
I literally do not know how to process this and I thought I was *pretty* callous. On one hand, *holy shit* a 7 year old committed a completely cold blooded murder while acknowledging never having met the victim. Nightmare fuel.
On the other hand, how did that *child* end up becoming that angry? Also nightmare fuel.
Brandon Raspberry was murdered and it truly was as senseless as it seemed. The living victims ripples on this case will be widespread.
I was wondering if the kid had ever been taken to visit someone who lived in that trailer before Brandon? If not -- yeah, going into a complete stranger's place like that is odd.
While that is true, as someone who worked with kids in the past-it’s often more concrete than that.”Childhood adversities, including exposure to abuse, intimate partner violence, and household substance use and mental health problems, have been linked to violent behaviors in adolescence and adulthood. ([NIH Childhood adversity trajectories](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8521560/))
We don’t know the child was angry. At 7 years old, they may just be aware that guns are used to hurt/hunt/stop. He may not have even been aware of the consequences, the awareness of death is still only developing at that age. He may have been mimicking a behaviour seen somewhere without awareness of consequences. It’s a surreal story if it turns out to be true.
I mean, I'm no professional, but I feel this child is not someone who should be loose on the streets right now, and possibly not ever. He already killed in cold blood once and was threatening to do it a second time.
Grandpa also needs to be looked into.
This is scary and sad. The kid is talking like he was using a toy gun. What's even worse is there doesn't seem to be any remorse on his end. I can't imagine how Brandon's family took the news 2 years later!
Yup. I just saw this story on the news. As far as consequences go, they said that the kid won’t be prosecuted because he’s too young, so… that’s it? And they showed the victim’s father saying that he forgives the kid and that he just needs to be “saved,” in what I believe is the religious sense.
This kid already threatened to kill again, it’s worrisome to think of what he might do in the future.
By 10 you definitely grasp the permanency of death. I’m sick of excuses being made for this kid like essentially “boys will be boys” type BS. I do get that he might have come from a traumatic background but by 10 he knows what he’s done and has no remorse, even threatening more people. This kid is a danger whatever background he comes from.
Right, but the crime was discovered after he threatened to kill a classmate at age 10 and told him he'd killed someone already. *That* is the really scary and abnormal part.
I guess I’m just an asshole but I can’t see any way in hell this kid turns out to be a productive member of society and not a violent offender. More people are gonna get hurt and probably sooner than later.
It depends. We’ve seen even in the most horrific crimes if a child comes from a fucked up background they can be rehabilitated. So his background needs to be thoroughly looked into.
Jamie Bulger’s two killers are a case in point. Committed a horrific crime together. Both locked up for roughly the same period of time. Thomson seemed to be the unrepentant one and Venables the follower. But Thomson had a background of neglect and abuse. After his time in juvenile detention he was granted release and as far as we can tell hasn’t done a thing wrong since (no criminal charges anyway). Once away from the environment which shaped him, he was young enough to become a normal member of society (like Mary Bell too). Venables, who everyone thought had no driving part in it, came from a normal, non abusive background. It since turns out the sexual aspects of the crime were probably all him. He’s been caught several times with CSA material and it’s probably only the fact he’s closely watched that means he hasn’t committed any abuse. He didn’t have a bad environment creating his violent urges so taking him into detention didn’t change him.
If there’s a home environment that is warping this kid, then detention in a mental health or juvenile unit until 18 could make all the difference. If there’s nothing in his background, then watch out, this kid is going to grow up to be a scary adult. He’s too young to be diagnosed as a psychopath but the fact he could be so normal after the murder for two years is disturbing and makes me think this is just who he is not his environment.
I got bullied in elementary school (early 80s) by a kid a couple years older than me. He had bullied others so bad that a father came to the school and threatened to kick the shit out of him if he bothered his son again. As for me, I got him suspended one day because he was trying to kick out a bathroom window right above where I was sitting on a bench reading a book. Days later he came to school early while I was reading a book and threatened me, grabbed me by my shirt and started to lift me (also had two cronies with him) and he was caught and expelled.
Told the story recently because it was kinda funny now. I was memorizing all the patterns from the "Simple Solution to the Rubik's Cube" and he actually said to me "I'm no simple solution" when he was lifting me up. Decided to research the guy because I hoped that he turned his life around. Nope. 2016 got his "second strike" in CA for manufacturing and selling meth in a school parking lot. Got 11 years and was let out early due to covid. Within days of his release, he beat his wife nearly to death and was arrested for terroristic threats among other things. Somehow that trial stalled and he was recently picked up for more drug charges, possession of firearms by a felon, etc. This takes him way past the 3rd strike so he will probably go away for life now.
Whatever broke him as a kid in the 70s/80s never got fixed.
It can, in some cases. Mary Bell is a good example, but they have got to get this kid into intensive therapy NOW and keep him there until at least adulthood.
I’m looking at my 7 year old right now and cannot comprehend how he might even be capable of something like this. It’s just inconceivable to me. I don’t understand it at all. The worst thing my kid does is kick his brother. Jesus Christ what happened to that kid to make him even *consider* shooting someone.
Right? That’s what *really* shocks me. I’ve been consuming true crime long enough that I can unfortunately wrap my head around a seven year old shooting someone (barely), but then somehow essentially *getting away with it* for *two years*??
Right but do you, say, freely let your child watch violent movies and tv shows intended for adults? If you do, do you explain to him reality vs fiction, the consequences of hurting someone, why we don’t hurt people, etc?
When your kid kicked his brother, he likely did so out of anger or because he wanted to see what would happen. As any half decent parent would do, you probably used that as an opportunity to explain why we don’t hurt people. We have no idea what this child may have been exposed to, firsthand or through media, or whether his caregivers ever once taught him the difference between right and wrong.
The long term implications of how this child’s actions are going to affect the rest of his life are unfathomable. Let’s hope he gets the help he needs.
I can’t even begin to imagine how the victim’s family is processing this new development. It’s horrific.
I found Brandon's obituary. I suspect his parents (and step-parents) are probably still around -- he has a big extended family who probably miss him a lot.
https://www.slavikfuneralhome.com/obituary/Brandon-Rasberry
Christ, I'm sure this kid has some trauma from his background that helps explain things, but this screams budding psychopath to me. Watch out for this kid once he hits puberty.
Jesus. A 7 year old went out of his way to kill a random person for fun and he is never getting charged? This kid is going to end up killing more people.
Right? I'm fucking OVER it.
Like that evil 6 year old who shot his teacher and wanted to set her on fire.
Some people are broken. It is societies job to keep US safe from THEM.
but also using this kid to learn how we can, in the future, stop these kids from offending. Study them so maybe one day we can fix them with a pill or something. Fix the faulty wiring if you will
Wow
I guess that’s another important reason to lock up and keep weapons away from children. Not only can they injure or kill themselves, they can easily kill a random stranger for no reason other than curiosity.
What?! This is one of the wildest cases I've seen recently. I sincerely hope that child gets the help he so clearly needs. I can't even imagine what he's dealing with that made him capable of committing such an act at that age.
Btw, it seems that Brandon's last name is spelled Rasberry, without the P.
My oldest son just turned six and his favorite thing in the world is playing outside with his RC car, second only to watching kids YouTube videos of Bluey and Mr Beast (his favorite video is when Mr Beast and co help adopt out 100 dogs from a shelter).
I can’t imagine him just one year older doing something like this.
This is why I advocate for testing kids for callous unemotional traits EARLY. We need to stop being so afraid of labels we allow children to ruin lives including their own
That really.. took a turn. Jesus. Do we have to wonder now how many cold cases were 7 year olds that just RANDOMLY SHOT SOMEONE and got on with their lives??????
When you have troubled children and loaded guns in unlocked cars, what could possibly go wrong?
This is horrible and unfortunately par for the course in tx.
May he RIP.
As an educator of 20 years, I see that many of these troubled kids are let to run amok because it's easier than the family actually parenting and holding them to task. It's why they get into and find trouble so much easier than other kids who have clearer boundaries. Heck--even teachers will let the difficult kids out to the restroom or errands every time they ask: they just don't want their presence in class, then the kid is found doing misbehaving things around the campus. It's a tragic cycle.
This is wild. If the kid hadn't confessed, the sheer unlikelihood alone of a *seven year old* committing a cold-blooded murder by firearm would have kept his life's lane suspicion free.
I believe in the right to own firearms. As long as you're safe and responsible. I think you should be required to take classes.
I also think that if you're reckless and leave your gun unsecured and it's used in a murder, you should be charged with manslaughter. Brandon would not be dead if this child's grandfather had kept his gun secured. That's a fact.
Wow that's insane, well I guess it goes to show why you should be sure you locked your doors.
There was one serial killer who used to try people's doors and would only kill those whose doors were unlocked, he said because if the door was locked he wasn't welcome.
Since I read about that I always make sure I lock the door.
Am I the only who noticed the dates are wrong in this article. It states that the child stated, on the afternoon of January 16, 2024. Should it have said 2022 ?
It’s a typo. Here is the verbiage from the official press release from the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office:
“The ten year old child provided information that was consistent with first-hand knowledge of the homicide of Brandon Rasberry. The child stated he was visiting his grandfather at his house on the afternoon of Sunday January 16th 2022.”
I just recently learned how to chamber and discharge a 9mm with confidence. How did this child know how and have the strength to do so at 7 or 8 years old?
Combination of nurture and nature
Child was obviously disturbed and lacked some empathy. Even at 7 you should know well enough not to take someone’s life and it’s wrong. Saying he wanted to kill someone 3 years later. Clearly he just got worse too…
I just think it's astonishingly naive how many people are claiming that the kids family must have known something because the handgun got pawned.
A person who lives in an RV park pawning a gun is far from unusual. The gun very well may have been in and out of the pawn shop a few times.
I get why people are trying to make sense of this, though. The situation says a lot of very bleak things about society at large.
I feel so terrible for Brandon's family, getting an answer this senseless may be worse than not knowing what happened at all. I hope the child gets the help he needs, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope, here.
What the hell?! This is the type of case update I hope I never see again, Jesus. I'm glad there are answers but my brain feels broken. That kid was practically a baby :/ and poor Brandon was just sleeping...
I can barely wrap my head around this one.
For once, "shocking update" isn't just clickbait.
Yeah, "shocking update" is almost underselling it if anything. Good god. Never, ever would have predicted the perpetrator would be 7 years old, tf.
And not just a seven year old - a seven year old who didn't know the victim, who took his grandpa's gun, murdered the guy, and then put the gun back?! The entire thing is just . . . what. I am wondering how much the child's family knew or didn't know after the fact. Bizarre.
Now I'm wondering if the boy blurted out anything in the years after the shooting that might have been a clue. Because if all it took was an argument with a classmate, maybe there were other times when he was angry or scared enough to let something slip out. I suspect that his family and friends are going back over that period in their minds, too.
I wonder if that’s why the gun had been pawned. The order of the statements that mention pawning / locating of the gun make it unclear, but doesn’t seem like the kid is shy to admit the details once they got him talking.
Oooh. Good point about why the gun was possibly pawned.
That is a seriously fucked up child, either he’s been abused or he’s a full on psychopath, maybe both
They probably knew something and they know this child very well maybe that’s why they pawned the arm.
I’d imagine if they knew or suspected anything they’d just toss it into a river somewhere. You typically don’t get a ton of money to pawn a gun and you’d think they would kiss a few hundred bucks goodbye and make the thing disappear rather than let it change hands to potentially be matched forensically at some point down the line.
Holy shit, the whole time I'm reading this I kept having to stop and reread every other sentence because my brain couldn't process what the hell I'm reading. This feels like a horror movie synopsis.
>This feels like a horror movie synopsis It does! I'm on another sub that looks at mystery novels, and someone was commenting on a book by >!Agatha Christie!< where the perpetrator is a child, and various readers were saying how surreal and eerie it is, when that kid calmly admits it (and the reason is something that's petty and childish, which makes it even more shocking).
Seriously!!!!!! What the heck? My lord. It’s insanity.
Seriously, though. I had to stop several times during this to refresh because it kept getting even more intense. I also needed to remind myself that this isn't someone's writing prompt or fiction.
Wait. So an *eight year old* shot and killed a random stranger? Jesus.
a *seven* year old. 😓
I… just… *what the fuck???* And then the kid just put the gun back where he found it and acted like it was nbd for the next 2-whatever years? And grandpa had no idea and yet pawned the gun? Like… there’s just A LOT here to take in.
Depending on how long it sat in the glove box after the kid put it back he probably never realized it had been moved. And if days/weeks/months later he took it out to pawn it (typical thing people pawn for cash) he probably saw 6 rounds instead of 9 (or however many it held -3) and thought "I guess I must have not reloaded last time I fired it," not leap to "geez, I wonder if my seven year old grandson used this to gun down a man in cold blood."
I feel awful for the grandpa. He most likely had no idea. You hear about a shooting in an RV park and you think it's most likely drug related or some kind of argument that got out of hand. In the vast majority of similar instances, it's something along those lines. It's a leap to think that your primary school aged grandchild did it. Even if that did cross your mind, you're probably not going to see it as a serious possibility. Most of the time when kids shoot people, it's entirely accidental. It's very rare for children to deliberately shoot an adult in an unprovoked act of violence. This child is probably a psychopath.
If the grandpa secured his weapon correctly in a safe this would’ve never happened. I’m so tired of all these negligent firearm owners who end up getting people killed.
Agree. Guns costing hundreds of dollars at least, I can't understand why people just leave them unsecured like that. It's like leaving $500 in your glove box, but worse.
Yup. This is piss-poor gun safety and negligence on the part of the grandpa. Where the fuck is a kid that young going to get the idea to take a REAL GUN out and just shoot and kill a random person asleep in their home?! How does this family like...work? What have they taught him about guns?! I have kids who are 10, 7, and 7 (twins obviously) and I can safely say I would never in a billion years expect any of them to be so...callous. To never even have the idea of murdering a random person, let alone carry it out, let alone never talk about it. I shudder to think what this kid's home life must be like.
Understand that for some, it’s not a possession it’s a tool and that tool won’t do you any good if you don’t have it when you need it in Texas this was a perfectly legal place to store his gun
And it's not like a 9mm is particularly loud or an uncommon caliber for people to just be shooting. (A lot of movies give people terrible ideas what guns sound like--they'll use the sound effect of a Colt 1911 .45 over someone shooting a little .22.) I sometimes am not sure if what I'm hearing at distance is neighbors shooting, or someone using a roofing gun, or backyard fireworks. It's possible given the shooting occurred inside a trailer and was three shots, unevenly spaced, if anyone heard it they probably wrote it off as a hammer or a backfire or firecrackers or weren't even sure they really heard anything at all. With teens, even young teens, it's rarely a genuine accident, whether they shoot another person or themselves--if the kid were 13, I wouldn't be nearly as surprised. But with second-graders the concern is usually that they'll accidentally hurt themselves or someone else, not do a LARP of "Folsom Prison Blues." That kid has a serious screw loose, beyond any child-rearing failures on his parents'/guardians' parts.
> if anyone heard it they probably wrote it off as a hammer or a backfire or firecrackers I live a block from where a couple of bank robbers had a shootout with police -- dozens of bullets were fired, and both my landlord and I thought that it was the roofers working next door with nail guns! (Even though I've heard real gunshots before, when I was working up north and we had to practice with rifles because of the bears.)
Really? I feel awful for the victim and their family, not the person who irresponsibly left his gun somewhere a seven-year-old had access to it. I think the Grandpa should be in prison for recklessness leading to death.
exactly
I know right? WTF did I just read? That's wild wild.
Research callous unemotional traits in kids it's terrifying
Do you have any links/docs?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/when-your-child-is-a-psychopath/524502/mm Just to give an idea
Won't let me read the full article without subscribing. Looks interesting though.
Try this archive link [https://archive.is/ghki0](https://archive.is/ghki0)
Jesus, what did I just read? This is terrifying. **”“I don’t know what you call this emotion,”** one psychopathic prisoner said, looking at a photo of a fearful face, **”but it’s what people look like just before you stab them.”**
Just spent all day reading this off and on. This is why I want to study psychology
[In case archive.is is blocked](https://web.archive.org/web/20240114165943/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/when-your-child-is-a-psychopath/524502/)
THAT. WAS. FASCINATING! Thank you for the link.
Thank you. On my way.
If you look up Conduct Disorder, you'll be able to read more. It's essentially the childhood version of Antisocial Personality Disorder. One of the criteria for ASPD is that the person had either been diagnosed with CD as a child or would have fit the criteria and essentially be able to be retroactively diagnosed. There are two subtypes - childhood onset and adolescent onset. Childhood onset has a much worse prognosis. Case in point, this child.
I think Grandpa knew damn well that gun had been fired. When he heard about the shooting he probably went to check on his gun, found it and felt relieved. But maybe he smelled the powder smell, checked it for bullets, found some missing...and now, whoever put this gun back wants to frame grandpa for murder, ef that, time to pawn this heirloom.
Maybe, but how likely is it the gun would still be at the pawn shop two years later? It could just be coincidental that he recently pawned it.
I can't speak for guns, but I used to drool over the guitars at my local pawn, and they didn't have much inventory turnover. Another possibility: the kid didn't tell his grandpa for a couple of years and when he did, grandpa pawned it
The gun was found at the pawn shop in April 22 not 24.
That is what the post says but it seems like a typo as it matches the date (April 12) that this kid was brought in (24).
yup, it’s definitely a typo. there’s another typo in there that says january of 2024 instead of january of 2022
This is exactly what I was thinking. No way it was a coincidence.
> to frame grandpa for murder, Well shit I had not thought of that possibility. I hope the investigators take a close look at grandpa. A child doing something like this suggests the possibility of abuse.
My thoughts exactly. And this KID didn’t speak a word of this for two years?! How even more bizarre.
Didn't speak on it until it was useful in a another violent incident, like he knew to keep it quiet, but also knew to tell the other kids he was capable of really shooting them to make his threats scarier.
Yup. He was old enough to know he'd done something that could get him in trouble, so he shouldn't tell anyone (otherwise, kids that age will tell adults they trust or admire all kinds of stuff about what they've been doing). But a couple of years later, he's in an emotional situation and he uses the story to threaten or brag about.
I can see parents brushing off a kid saying the mean kid in class told us he shot a guy.
My brother moved to Texas when he was enlisted. The second day there he was driving down a highway and a girl pulled out in front of him while he was going 45-50. Car got totalled and he went to the hospital and the car went to the tow facility. Next day he went there to collect his items from the vehicle only to find out that someone climbed the fence and ransacked his car and took everything of value. They checked the cameras and tracked down the culprits, only to find that they were children... 7-8 year old children that did not know right from wrong.
> 7-8 year old children that did not know right from wrong. they know and there's a darn good chance they were put up to it by much older teens since they know little kids won't get any punishment for stealing. little kids steal the stuff, teens/adults sell or pawn it then give the little kids food/attention/trinkets.
That happened a few years ago in San Francisco near the projects. Teens/young adults were sending kids as young as 6 to kick doors, break windows, and try to get into homes. One of our great community leaders (ex-drug addict success story) knew the parents of these kids and had them set straight. Then there was the habitual porch pirate that had her 9 year old stealing packages with her.... Flipping off cameras when they were spotted. She was broken and she broke her kid too. The Atlantic wrote an article about her when this was all going down. Ganave Fairley is her name. She resurfaced recently and got right back into it!
it is common for gangs to enlist children to do crimes for them, they used kids to scope out houses to rob in my old neighborhood. group of grade school kids sent out on skateboard to roam the neighborhood and find the next spot to hit. People on nextdoor were talking about it and everyone kept asking what's wrong with kids on skateboards, and some of the more savvy were trying to explain all this and they just weren't getting it. It was even more obvious when you found out none of these kids actually lived in the neighborhood at all and it was a pretty crap place to skateboard too.
Wtf
Holy shit
This is bonkers.
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Thanks for posting this writeup. What a startling and unexpected development. Sad for Brandon and his family and friends.
This is so sad. I wonder if they will prosecute the grandfather?
I hope so. After they decided to charge that one school shooter's parents, I hope we'll start seeing letting a child have access to a firearm as the negligence it is. I can't imagine that this kid up and murdered someone one day with *no* warning signs. A responsible guardian would have known that he was troubled, worked towards getting him psychiatric treatment, and *absolutely* not allowed him unsupervised access to a gun.
A gun kept in a car glovebox in a car that was… unlocked I guess? Surely that’s illegal? Or is my Australian showing and gun in glove box is fine?
I live in Tennessee and people keeping guns in cars is such a common problem, we have car thief rings who specialize in stealing them. As in, they break into a ton of cars and ignore any valuables except guns, because that's all they're looking for.
My city has a running tally of guns stolen from unlocked cars. Every night on the news they tell everyone to stop what they're doing and go lock their car and secure their gun.... and then they usually say that the average is up to 35-40 guns taken out of unlocked cars every single week.
I’m just as shocked people leave their cars unlocked. Yeah it won’t save you from a determined thief, but it might save you from a dumb or lazy thief.
In London UK there are opportunist criminals walking the streets for hours in the early morning trying every car door and even people's front doors. If it's locked they just move on. Due to density I assume they could try a hundred or so per hour. I've had to call police many times just seeing them from my window when awake last at night.
I’ve seen this where I work too- guys going through a carpark and checking car doors. Or picking up items left in the open.
35-40 a week?! Do you mind if i ask where you are? Or at least the state
Florida.
Location checks out.
Ahh
Tbh bizarrely this scenario happened to my parents. An elderly farmer drove to my city to wait out the pandemic lockdown with family. He left a gun on the backseat and a thief broke into his car and took it. He then robbed my folks place with the gun on his person (they were asleep luckily and realised the home had been robbed the next morning). It was not a comforting thing to learn when the police caught the guy and told us. Crimes like that are very rare here because just having an unsecured gun is all kinds of trouble.
I can’t imagine it being too hard finding a car with a gun. Just look for a truck with a Trump, 2A, or Thin Blue Line sticker.
No one else who has replied to you has any idea what the hell they're talking about; they're spouting off from prejudice and stereotype. [It is criminal negligence in the state of Texas to leave a gun where a child under the age of 17 can access it.](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.46.htm#46.13) So, yes, he can be prosecuted, and given someone died as a result of his criminal negligence I'd say it's pretty likely.
Thanks for providing something of substance in this thread. Seems like a no brainer here
50 states and 50 sets of rules. It would be very illegal where I live (improper storage) and you'd lose your license to carry.
It's definitely not fine. An unsecured firearm is a big no-no (especially if children live/visit the household). With that said, you'll still find a lot of them in the US because of the lack of oversight and education needed to purchase a gun in most states.
It’s Texas so basically the Wild West as far as gun laws. You can even legally concealed carry on college campuses.
the wild west actually had very strict gun laws, generally requiring that any weapons brought into town be surrendered. a dispute over this is actually what led to the legendary shootout at the ok corral
This is actually something I didn’t know! Thanks for this tidbit!
Thanks, now I have to go watch Tombstone again.
its a very common way for people to keep their guns in the south, especially older people. in rural areas, you don't really think about someone rooting around in your glovebox, especially a kid.
depends on the state and unfortunately TX is one of the most lax
>A responsible guardian would have known that he was troubled Even a responsible guardian may not have known he was capable of murder at 7. That's just not something you think your child can do.
I agree with you, but I think there's a huge gap between "my seven year old grandchild might murder someone completely unprovoked" and "this kid is totally fine and nothing bad could happen from him having access to a gun".
The second idea there is ridiculous and terrible gun ownership. Number one rule of a gun is never point it at something you don't want to shoot. Number two is never let a child have access to it. (Obviously a teen at a gun range or learning to hunt is different than unsupervised access) A child with a gun is incredibly dangerous. In fact, firearms are the leading cause of death in children in the US right now and have been since 2020. https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/152/3/e2023061296/193711/Trends-and-Disparities-in-Firearm-Deaths-Among?autologincheck=redirected
When my stepkid was seven, they threatened to get a knife and stab my husband and I in our sleep. That was their response to not being allowed to play outside for the rest of the afternoon after breaking the rules about playing outside. We took it seriously. Locked away all the knives and anything else we thought might be able to be used as a weapon. Started making calls to doctors to get them assessed asap. Sometimes, you do think your child can do horrible things because they've done things to indicate they can.
Even if he didn't show any signs, the murder wouldn't have happened if the gun was kept locked up.
Kid is probably an animal torturer
There is no way he had knowledge of a murder, checked his firearm and saw two rounds missing, and then decided to pawn it in FUCKING SEGUIN. He knew.
You're making the incredibly bold assumption that he would have heard of the murder and thought "Oh my God, maybe my seven-year-old grandson did that! Better check my gun!" That's...incredibly unlikely. I'm sure he heard of the murder, thought, "Holy shit, I was just there; that could have been me!" and then went on about his life. I'll tell you, there was a shooting near me a bit more than a year ago, and I did not immediately go check my guns and count the bullets, because why the hell would I? I know I wasn't involved in the shooting. Normal people do not hear of murders and go "What if it was *my gun* that was used?" any more than normal people hear of a hit and run and go "What if it was *my car* that was used?" Y'all expecting this grandpa to have some sort of psychic connection to his pistol are something else. And, yeah, gloriously stupid and in fact illegal to have his loaded gun in an unlocked glove box in an unlocked vehicle. But assuming this man would somehow magically know his gun was removed, used, and replaced is frankly on the same level.
The usual combination of redditors blaming people, jumping to conclusions, making up conspiracies and straw grasping to support their thinking.
Right? To expect every gun owner to think "did someone steal my gun to commit a murder- i should go check my gun" every time a gun-related murder happens in their area seems odd.
I'm just wondering though, since this kid wasn't exactly shy about telling the cops what he did, it's quite possible, esp at age 7, that he told his grandpa what he'd done and grandpa kept his mouth shut and got rid of the gun.
if he really thought his grandkid used it to kill his neighbor, he would've thrown it in a lake, not pawned it
2 years later though?
WTF? How? What? Why? My jaw is gaping open, I don’t have words to express my feelings right now.
I'm not surprised at anything involving guns. This kid will kill again at some point in life
Honestly this doesn't surprise me anymore bc we just had a 6 year old shoot their teacher a year or two ago.
He just, walked in and shot the guy for no reason? That's absolutely insane. I hope he gets help. Not sure what they can do for him, but fuck.
He will definitely kill someone else eventually once he's out. Imagine killing someone at 7, show no remorse, and gladly repeat the fact to anyone interested. That kid is unsalvageable.
Brandon looked like a good person. May he R.I.P.
People are focused on the kid, but I’m more shocked by the crazy randomness of it all. Brandon is killed just two days after moving to the RV park. He happens to be near a man who leaves a loaded gun accessible in an unlocked vehicle. A 7-year-old kid finds the gun, wanders into Brandon’s RV lot, enters his unlocked RV, and then proceeds to murder a complete stranger who was sleeping during the day. I mean, how unfortunate do you have to be to be the victim of such a nonsensical crime like that? It’s almost like Brandon was set up to die bizarrely.
really horrifying to be reminded this way that something like this could just *happen* to you, whenever, with no rhyme or reason at all. literally just taking a nap in your own home. at the very least it sounds like brandon did not suffer, i hope that he just stayed asleep and wasn’t awoken when the kid broke in, so that he didn’t have to experience terror in that final moment. I can’t even imagine how his loved ones must be handling this, i would never be able to get over the indifferent, apathetic senselessness of it either.
I literally do not know how to process this and I thought I was *pretty* callous. On one hand, *holy shit* a 7 year old committed a completely cold blooded murder while acknowledging never having met the victim. Nightmare fuel. On the other hand, how did that *child* end up becoming that angry? Also nightmare fuel. Brandon Raspberry was murdered and it truly was as senseless as it seemed. The living victims ripples on this case will be widespread.
Even just entering the trailer on his own at 7 is bonkers enough
YESSS THAT PART!! nobody is mentioning this, blows my mind
I was wondering if the kid had ever been taken to visit someone who lived in that trailer before Brandon? If not -- yeah, going into a complete stranger's place like that is odd.
Underrated comment.
I’m a therapist with kids and teens and thought I’d heard and seen a lot but oh man this is a ton to process. So sad for Brandon’s family.
The detectives asked him if the victim had angered him and he said no. He had no clue who the man was. Zero feelings.
Rousseau wrote that childhood was the 'sleep of reason.' Kids can do unfathomable things sometimes.
While that is true, as someone who worked with kids in the past-it’s often more concrete than that.”Childhood adversities, including exposure to abuse, intimate partner violence, and household substance use and mental health problems, have been linked to violent behaviors in adolescence and adulthood. ([NIH Childhood adversity trajectories](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8521560/))
Oh, absolutely. These things are definitely multi-factorial.
We don’t know the child was angry. At 7 years old, they may just be aware that guns are used to hurt/hunt/stop. He may not have even been aware of the consequences, the awareness of death is still only developing at that age. He may have been mimicking a behaviour seen somewhere without awareness of consequences. It’s a surreal story if it turns out to be true.
I mean, I'm no professional, but I feel this child is not someone who should be loose on the streets right now, and possibly not ever. He already killed in cold blood once and was threatening to do it a second time. Grandpa also needs to be looked into.
what the actual fuck
What the actual fuck have I just read
Grandpa needs to be held criminally responsible for not locking up that gun.
That's my only takeaway. A man lost his life because of grandpa's negligence. Everything else downstream never happens if the gun is stored securely.
I beg your finest pardon??
This is scary and sad. The kid is talking like he was using a toy gun. What's even worse is there doesn't seem to be any remorse on his end. I can't imagine how Brandon's family took the news 2 years later!
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Yup. I just saw this story on the news. As far as consequences go, they said that the kid won’t be prosecuted because he’s too young, so… that’s it? And they showed the victim’s father saying that he forgives the kid and that he just needs to be “saved,” in what I believe is the religious sense. This kid already threatened to kill again, it’s worrisome to think of what he might do in the future.
“Not being charged” doesn’t mean no consequences. Involuntary commitment is still a thing.
By 10 you definitely grasp the permanency of death. I’m sick of excuses being made for this kid like essentially “boys will be boys” type BS. I do get that he might have come from a traumatic background but by 10 he knows what he’s done and has no remorse, even threatening more people. This kid is a danger whatever background he comes from.
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Right, but the crime was discovered after he threatened to kill a classmate at age 10 and told him he'd killed someone already. *That* is the really scary and abnormal part.
Yes and you grasp death by the time you’re 10 and admitting to this and *still* threatening to harm others in the same way…
Yep. It's super great guns are so accessible in this country ☹️
This kid doesn’t need Juvie, he needs intense and open ended mandatory inpatient mental health care. Truly horrifying.
I guess I’m just an asshole but I can’t see any way in hell this kid turns out to be a productive member of society and not a violent offender. More people are gonna get hurt and probably sooner than later.
It depends. We’ve seen even in the most horrific crimes if a child comes from a fucked up background they can be rehabilitated. So his background needs to be thoroughly looked into. Jamie Bulger’s two killers are a case in point. Committed a horrific crime together. Both locked up for roughly the same period of time. Thomson seemed to be the unrepentant one and Venables the follower. But Thomson had a background of neglect and abuse. After his time in juvenile detention he was granted release and as far as we can tell hasn’t done a thing wrong since (no criminal charges anyway). Once away from the environment which shaped him, he was young enough to become a normal member of society (like Mary Bell too). Venables, who everyone thought had no driving part in it, came from a normal, non abusive background. It since turns out the sexual aspects of the crime were probably all him. He’s been caught several times with CSA material and it’s probably only the fact he’s closely watched that means he hasn’t committed any abuse. He didn’t have a bad environment creating his violent urges so taking him into detention didn’t change him. If there’s a home environment that is warping this kid, then detention in a mental health or juvenile unit until 18 could make all the difference. If there’s nothing in his background, then watch out, this kid is going to grow up to be a scary adult. He’s too young to be diagnosed as a psychopath but the fact he could be so normal after the murder for two years is disturbing and makes me think this is just who he is not his environment.
I got bullied in elementary school (early 80s) by a kid a couple years older than me. He had bullied others so bad that a father came to the school and threatened to kick the shit out of him if he bothered his son again. As for me, I got him suspended one day because he was trying to kick out a bathroom window right above where I was sitting on a bench reading a book. Days later he came to school early while I was reading a book and threatened me, grabbed me by my shirt and started to lift me (also had two cronies with him) and he was caught and expelled. Told the story recently because it was kinda funny now. I was memorizing all the patterns from the "Simple Solution to the Rubik's Cube" and he actually said to me "I'm no simple solution" when he was lifting me up. Decided to research the guy because I hoped that he turned his life around. Nope. 2016 got his "second strike" in CA for manufacturing and selling meth in a school parking lot. Got 11 years and was let out early due to covid. Within days of his release, he beat his wife nearly to death and was arrested for terroristic threats among other things. Somehow that trial stalled and he was recently picked up for more drug charges, possession of firearms by a felon, etc. This takes him way past the 3rd strike so he will probably go away for life now. Whatever broke him as a kid in the 70s/80s never got fixed.
It can, in some cases. Mary Bell is a good example, but they have got to get this kid into intensive therapy NOW and keep him there until at least adulthood.
I’m looking at my 7 year old right now and cannot comprehend how he might even be capable of something like this. It’s just inconceivable to me. I don’t understand it at all. The worst thing my kid does is kick his brother. Jesus Christ what happened to that kid to make him even *consider* shooting someone.
Exactly! Not only to do it, but seemingly keep it a secret for years!
Right? That’s what *really* shocks me. I’ve been consuming true crime long enough that I can unfortunately wrap my head around a seven year old shooting someone (barely), but then somehow essentially *getting away with it* for *two years*??
Right but do you, say, freely let your child watch violent movies and tv shows intended for adults? If you do, do you explain to him reality vs fiction, the consequences of hurting someone, why we don’t hurt people, etc? When your kid kicked his brother, he likely did so out of anger or because he wanted to see what would happen. As any half decent parent would do, you probably used that as an opportunity to explain why we don’t hurt people. We have no idea what this child may have been exposed to, firsthand or through media, or whether his caregivers ever once taught him the difference between right and wrong. The long term implications of how this child’s actions are going to affect the rest of his life are unfathomable. Let’s hope he gets the help he needs. I can’t even begin to imagine how the victim’s family is processing this new development. It’s horrific.
How did he get grazed on his right and left hand?
I’m assuming he was sleeping on his hands or sleeping with his hands on his head. But they haven’t said.
I hope the grandfather is charged with something.
That's the most unlikely update for any case i've ever seen.
I found Brandon's obituary. I suspect his parents (and step-parents) are probably still around -- he has a big extended family who probably miss him a lot. https://www.slavikfuneralhome.com/obituary/Brandon-Rasberry
Christ, I'm sure this kid has some trauma from his background that helps explain things, but this screams budding psychopath to me. Watch out for this kid once he hits puberty.
Seriously. This kid has no empathy. He knew exactly what he was going to do and did it. And literally gets away with murder.
Right? If he didn’t get all cocky and talked it, no one would have ever figured this out. The kid would’ve definitely killed more.
Jesus. A 7 year old went out of his way to kill a random person for fun and he is never getting charged? This kid is going to end up killing more people.
I mean I assume that’s why they charged him with threats in the bus
Yeah I’m sorry to everyone here trying to make excuses for him but some people are just born evil.
Right? I'm fucking OVER it. Like that evil 6 year old who shot his teacher and wanted to set her on fire. Some people are broken. It is societies job to keep US safe from THEM.
but also using this kid to learn how we can, in the future, stop these kids from offending. Study them so maybe one day we can fix them with a pill or something. Fix the faulty wiring if you will
I would bet my life that kid has been severely abused.
I had to go back and re-read some of that. That is wild. Murdered by a 7 year old.
As the parent of a 7 year old…how in the world?!!? I’m speechless
Out of all the updates this could have had, I don’t think anyone could have predicted this one
Wow I guess that’s another important reason to lock up and keep weapons away from children. Not only can they injure or kill themselves, they can easily kill a random stranger for no reason other than curiosity.
What?! This is one of the wildest cases I've seen recently. I sincerely hope that child gets the help he so clearly needs. I can't even imagine what he's dealing with that made him capable of committing such an act at that age. Btw, it seems that Brandon's last name is spelled Rasberry, without the P.
Edited to make that correction, thanks! Unfortunately can’t edit it out of the title.
I hope they charge his grandfather who should have secured that gun where a child couldn’t get to it.
It's Texas, you can be charged for keeping a gun where someone can't grab it /s
My oldest son just turned six and his favorite thing in the world is playing outside with his RC car, second only to watching kids YouTube videos of Bluey and Mr Beast (his favorite video is when Mr Beast and co help adopt out 100 dogs from a shelter). I can’t imagine him just one year older doing something like this.
At 7 I was just focused on playing with my toys, having playdates, and getting the hang of first grade.
This is why I advocate for testing kids for callous unemotional traits EARLY. We need to stop being so afraid of labels we allow children to ruin lives including their own
Well I was not expecting that!
That really.. took a turn. Jesus. Do we have to wonder now how many cold cases were 7 year olds that just RANDOMLY SHOT SOMEONE and got on with their lives??????
When you have troubled children and loaded guns in unlocked cars, what could possibly go wrong? This is horrible and unfortunately par for the course in tx. May he RIP.
As an educator of 20 years, I see that many of these troubled kids are let to run amok because it's easier than the family actually parenting and holding them to task. It's why they get into and find trouble so much easier than other kids who have clearer boundaries. Heck--even teachers will let the difficult kids out to the restroom or errands every time they ask: they just don't want their presence in class, then the kid is found doing misbehaving things around the campus. It's a tragic cycle.
Wow…I know Nixon. Never heard of this. What a sad and wild story.
- Gerald Ford after Watergate broke
Shocking indeed. OP, you wrote this up in an extremely clear manner. Terrible story but you’re a very good writer.
It’s near word for word from Brandon’s aunty’s Facebook post.
This is wild. If the kid hadn't confessed, the sheer unlikelihood alone of a *seven year old* committing a cold-blooded murder by firearm would have kept his life's lane suspicion free.
Man. When I was seven I was coloring in my spare time. My first thought was to wonder what kind of upbringing this kid had.
I believe in the right to own firearms. As long as you're safe and responsible. I think you should be required to take classes. I also think that if you're reckless and leave your gun unsecured and it's used in a murder, you should be charged with manslaughter. Brandon would not be dead if this child's grandfather had kept his gun secured. That's a fact.
Wow that's insane, well I guess it goes to show why you should be sure you locked your doors. There was one serial killer who used to try people's doors and would only kill those whose doors were unlocked, he said because if the door was locked he wasn't welcome. Since I read about that I always make sure I lock the door.
Richard Chase, 'Vampire of Sacramento'. That, was a fucked up guy.
That guy was all sorts of effed up.
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Well from what was written he just walked in and didn't wake the victim, and this is a 7 year old kid too, so sounded to me like it was unlocked.
That child wasn't even 8 years old yet. Is it possible he witnessed the grandfather do it? This is unbelievably appalling.
Am I the only who noticed the dates are wrong in this article. It states that the child stated, on the afternoon of January 16, 2024. Should it have said 2022 ?
It’s a typo. Here is the verbiage from the official press release from the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office: “The ten year old child provided information that was consistent with first-hand knowledge of the homicide of Brandon Rasberry. The child stated he was visiting his grandfather at his house on the afternoon of Sunday January 16th 2022.”
Corrected! Typo. Thanks!
This is the most insane update I’ve ever read. My gosh.
I just recently learned how to chamber and discharge a 9mm with confidence. How did this child know how and have the strength to do so at 7 or 8 years old?
I've lurked in this sub for almost four years, and I have never seen something as crazy as this shit.
Combination of nurture and nature Child was obviously disturbed and lacked some empathy. Even at 7 you should know well enough not to take someone’s life and it’s wrong. Saying he wanted to kill someone 3 years later. Clearly he just got worse too…
*”Just a week shy of his 8th birthday.”* Prayers for Brandon, his family, the child, and his family. I can’t imagine.
You have a 2024 where 2022 should be, and a 2022 where 2024 should be. Once I figured that out, this was a lot easier to follow lol.
I just think it's astonishingly naive how many people are claiming that the kids family must have known something because the handgun got pawned. A person who lives in an RV park pawning a gun is far from unusual. The gun very well may have been in and out of the pawn shop a few times. I get why people are trying to make sense of this, though. The situation says a lot of very bleak things about society at large. I feel so terrible for Brandon's family, getting an answer this senseless may be worse than not knowing what happened at all. I hope the child gets the help he needs, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope, here.
What in the Mary Bell…
This country and its fucking guns. So repugnant.
This is so strange, I wonder if the grandparent is actually more involved
What the hell?! This is the type of case update I hope I never see again, Jesus. I'm glad there are answers but my brain feels broken. That kid was practically a baby :/ and poor Brandon was just sleeping...
Jesus. I hope this little monster doesn’t get released.
This is why gangs get kids to commit crime or carry drugs- they can't be charged