A 16-year-old boy is dead after an apparent accidental shooting at a home in the 2000 block of County Road 277 in Anderson, Texas, officials say. The teen's family heard what sounded like a gunshot around 8:09 p.m. Tuesday and found him suffering from a gunshot wound, according to officials.
Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said the teen was accidentally shot with a pistol, as reported by The Navasota Examiner. Medics and law enforcement responded to the scene Tuesday night, and the teen was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died from his injuries around 11 p.m.
Anderson is the county seat of Grimes County, with a population of 193 in the 2020 census.
Teen Transported to Regional Trauma Center
The teen was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, a Level IV Trauma Center, per CHI St. Joseph Health.
Sowell said the teen's body is being sent out of county to the Fort Bend County Medical Examiner's Office in Rosenberg for an autopsy. “It will be a few days before we get anything back,” Sowell said.
Officials are withholding the teen's name because he was a minor. Sowell described the situation as “very sad.”
What Investigators Still Need to Determine
Under Texas Penal Code Section 46.13, a person commits a Class A misdemeanor if, with criminal negligence, they fail to secure a loaded firearm accessed by a child under 17 who discharges it, causing death or serious bodily injury, or leave the firearm where they knew or should have known the child would access it, according to FindLaw's Texas Penal Code page. The statute also outlines affirmative defenses, including situations where a minor was supervised by an adult for lawful hunting or sporting activities, or where the weapon was used for lawful self-defense.
It remains unclear how the teen accessed the pistol, who owned it, or how it was stored.
Part of a Larger Pattern in Texas
Firearms were the leading cause of death among children and adolescents ages 1 to 17 in Texas in 2024, claiming 262 young lives statewide, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Total gun-related fatalities in Texas reached 4,389 that year.
No charges have been announced in connection with the shooting. Autopsy results from Fort Bend County are still pending, and the Grimes County Sheriff's Office has not released further details about weapon ownership or who, if anyone, was present with the teen when the gun discharged.
