New Caney mom Christie Wenzel dropped off her 11-year-old son, Alex Whitfield, at his Dad’s house in Spring Branch last Friday, just as she does every other weekend. She had no way of knowing it would be the last time.
Hours before Alex was to return home on Sunday, he had three friends over, and they found a loaded Glock 9 mm handgun in a closet and decided to check it out since no adults were home. According to the information given to Wenzel, the oldest of the four boys, a 15-year-old, aimed at a door and fired the gun. The bullet ricocheted and went into her son’s shoulder, she said, then traveled to his heart.
The other kids ran and told a neighbor who is a registered nurse, but by the time she reached Alex, he no longer had a pulse. She performed CPR on him until medics arrived and took over. They transported Alex to Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Christie Wenzel was waiting for a call to go and pick up her son. Instead, she got a call from Alex’s stepmother saying he was shot.
“Is that a cruel joke?” Wenzel responded.
Unfortunately, it was no joke. Her only child was dead.
Wenzel said she does not blame the 15-year-old who fired the shot. He was not aiming at her son and he now has to live with what happened, she said. She does not believe in guns and says she blames whoever left a loaded gun in the house where there were children.
“If I had known there was a gun there, he would never have gone,” Wenzel said. “What bothers me the most is that I thought had protected him from at least that.”
Police told Wenzel the gun that killed Alex belonged to his stepmother’s brother, who shares the same residence. The kids said they were looking for money to go to a convenience store when they found the weapon, but Wenzel said no one will ever know for sure.
The Houston Police Department is still investigating and they will present their findings to a grand jury who may or may not charge anyone with a crime.
Meanwhile, Wenzel has to go about the business of saying goodbye to her son, an Oakley Elementary School student who says had a “priceless smile” and could “light up a room just by walking into it.”
Alex Whitfield loved to dance more than anything else, his mom says. She was certain he would one day have a career as a dancer or in the music industry because he could rap like nobody else.
Wenzel said losing her son so tragically was a pain she would not wish on anyone.
Rosewood Funeral Home is handling Alex Whitfield’s Service. The viewing will be held on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m., followed by a funeral on Saturday at 10 a.m.
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