A 12-year-old boy in Keene, Texas, is accused of killing a fast-food employee with a rifle as the employee argued with a 20-year-old man who was with the boy, Fox News reports.
The Texas suburb, 30 miles south of Fort Worth, was the location of the Saturday night shooting at around 10 p.m. on May 13, 2023. Officers from the Keene Police Department reportedly found Sonic employee Matthew Davis with multiple gunshot wounds in the parking lot.
Davis, 32, was taken to a hospital, where he died from his wounds.
The 20-year-old Forth Worth man, named Angel Gomez, arrived at the Sonic with passengers in his vehicle, according to Fox 4 KDFW. Gomez reportedly began arguing and acting disorderly, according to police, and was confronted by an employee for allegedly urinating in the back of the parking lot.
As Gomez and employee Davis argued, it reportedly became physical before the 12-year-old passenger in Gomez’s vehicle grabbed the rifle in question. The child allegedly opened fire and reportedly fired at least six rounds at Davis, hitting him in the back, according to the Daily Caller.
Police say multiple witnesses called 911 to report the shooting. One witness, who lives nearby, told the local outlet that she heard the loud gunfire.
“I was outside. My fiancé had actually just ran in the house, and I heard a bunch of gunshots,” she recalled. “You see [helicopters] every once in a while, but you never see them flying this low and this close to home at least,” she remarked regarding the presence of an emergency response helicopter.
“A 12-year-old in this day had access to a gun to kill someone … breaks my heart actually,” she added.
Gomez and the child fled the area, but Gomez returned to the scene and was arrested. The boy was found and arrested at a home 15 miles away in Rio Vista, where several other firearms were recovered, according to police.
Both the boy and Gomez were charged with murder. The boy is being held in a juvenile detention facility.
Davis, who had reportedly just started the job at Sonic two weeks before, leaves behind a 10-year-old son and a fiancee.
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