A 16-year-old Texas boy is facing a murder charge in the death of a Terrell High School junior who was fatally shot before school Wednesday morning.
Terrell Police said just before 4:30 p.m. Wednesday that a teenager from Terrell had been charged with the murder of 17-year-old Damaria Jackson.
Jackson was found unresponsive just after 8 a.m. in a residential yard at the intersection of Trailview and Town North drives, about a mile from Terrell High School. First responders arrived and took the teenager to Presbyterian Hospital in Kaufman where he later died.
Investigators in Texas say a feud between family members led to the shooting death of Jackson. The 16-year-old suspect charged with Jackson’s murder is a cousin to one of the families involved.
Due to the suspect being a juvenile, it’s not expected that police will release his name.
Terrell Police said earlier in the day that one person had been taken into custody on an unrelated charge and that another person was suspected of being involved in the slaying. Police confirmed Wednesday afternoon the original person of interest was ruled out and remains held on an unrelated charge. Police said the initial suspect was also ruled out and that after “several hours of investigation and interviews” the 16-year-old was identified and charged with Jackson’s murder.
Terrell Deputy Chief Arly Sansom says the victim and suspect were cousins.
“We have the correct suspect in custody. He is a juvenile, so we won’t be releasing more information about him because of his age. But he is a male, and he has been charged with murder,” he said. “There’s apparently been a feud between these two families for quite some time. It seemed to have escalated recently in the last few days. Both parties had filed counter-complaints against each other for threats of violence. As a result, this incident happened today.”
Police would not go into what the families were feuding about.
Authorities say the armed suspect was seen on a home security camera in the neighborhood, helping them learn his identity.
They say the 16-year-old, who is not a Terrell ISD student, was interviewed at the police department, then arrested and charged.
Police say there was never a threat to nearby Terrell High School.
“We were able to establish early on there wasn’t a specific threat to the school itself or to any of the other students. It was isolated,” Sansom said.
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