A 14-year-old Texas boy, who was preparing to make it to his high school’s junior baseball team, was killed in a car crash by an alleged serial drunk driver who’d been released from prison on parole just hours before the accident.
Mason Nelson, a freshman at Ball High School in Galveston, was killed near the campus where he was practising just hours before the crash involving a man believed to be drunk driving.
The teenager was inside a Jeep with four of his friends when it was struck by a speeding SUV on Friday around 6pm, right across the street from Ball High School, police said.
Keith Brazier, 28, the man driving the SUV, was out of prison on parole just hours before the accident, Galveston police said.
According to detectives,Brazier was believed to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident which killed Mason and left his two friends critically injured.
The crash was captured on neighbourhood surveillance cameras.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Records, Brazier was serving time in prison for his third Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) offence he committed in January 2021.
He was charged with murder by Galveston police, the latest count in the 28-year-old’s criminal history, including three convictions of DWI. He is being held on a bond of $500,000.
The death of the teenager has left the community in shock and a memorial to honour Mason continued to grow at the site of thecrash.
A candlelight vigil was organised by Ball High’s student council on Tuesday, who described it as a “painful loss for all”.
“Our hearts mourn the passing of 14-year-old Ball High School student Mason Nelson – a loved and valued member of our district whose presence and meaning to our Ball High School family will never be replaced,” the statement by the Galveston Independent School District said.
Mason was being raised by a single parent, his father, who was described as his best friend by the family.
Diego Gutierrez, who was with Mason at the baseball practice hours before the crash, told the KHOU TV station that he was preparing to be on the juniors baseball team.
“I was at the volleyball game when it happened (the crash),” he said. “You never know when something’s going to happen, so always tell your family that you love them.”
A parent at the memorial said: “(He was a) really good kid. Full of spirit, full of life, and life took him in the blink of an eye.”
