{"id":447928,"date":"2026-09-26T00:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T00:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447928\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T00:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T00:18:09","slug":"number-of-juveniles-accused-of-crimes-involving-guns-on-the-rise-in-texas-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447928\/","title":{"rendered":"Number of juveniles accused of crimes involving guns on the rise in Texas, data shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — Family and classmates gathered at a memorial near Westfield High School on Friday to celebrate the life of a student who was killed days before.<\/p>\n

Royce Witchet, a Westfield High School student, was shot just before 3 p.m. Tuesday near the sidewalk between the high school and Spring ISD’s administration building on Ella Boulevard, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

He died at the hospital later that day.<\/p>\n

The following day, a 14-year-old was arrested and charged in his murder, according to the sheriff’s office. He is also believed to be a Spring ISD student.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS REPORT: 14-year-old suspect accused of fatally shooting Westfield HS student charged with murder, HCSO says<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday, his family said, “Enough is enough,” and encouraged people to “do better.”<\/p>\n

Witchet’s family acknowledged that they were aware of another shooting across town earlier in the day at Westbury High School, where another student was shot and killed outside their school.<\/p>\n

“The question that’s always asked is why,” Royce’s grandfather said. “The question that needs to be asked is, when are we going to do something about it. Too many kids are dying in school, where we send our kids off to be safe, and they are coming back dead. I don’t want nobody else to be standing in a situation like me and my family. Nobody. Parents, be parents and not friends.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE: 17-year-old student-athlete shot to death near Westbury High School, suspect search underway: HPD<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Just<\/p>\n

Just days after he was shot and killed outside his high school, family and friends gathered to remember Royce Witchet on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

13 Investigates found that statewide, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department received 2,474 referrals last year for juveniles accused of crimes involving firearms — a 45% increase in just five years.<\/p>\n

In 2020, there were 1,708 firearms referrals for juveniles.<\/p>\n

The number of youth accused of homicides has also increased. Last year, the state received 150 referrals for juveniles involved in homicides, which is up 65 percent from 2020, when there were 91 homicide referrals.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: 14-year-old arrested, accused of killing 17-year-old last month in NE Harris County, sheriff’s office says<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — Family and classmates gathered at a memorial near Westfield High School on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[154370,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-447928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-154370","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}