Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the shooting happened near Pflugerville but was not within city limits.
TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) – Jenna Clark said she and her son’s friend went to confront another family about a broken phone on July 30 — and it led to her son being shot and treated at the hospital.
Clark said a mother answered the door and an altercation erupted. She started walking back to her truck which had her three sons inside.
“And while that was happening, her son opened up the front door to their house and just unloaded the gun into my truck,” Clark said.
Her 15-year-old son, Avaun Bennett, was shot in the neck.
“They had to remove the bullet from the sinus in his face and put a plate in there,” she said.
After nine days in the hospital, Bennet recovered physically.
“It definitely could have been a lot worse. There are all those major arteries, veins and nerves, and it just missed everything,” she said. “I think mentally, he’s not okay with how things are playing out, but physically, he’s doing better.”
The Travis County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it received a call on the day of the shooting related to an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon at a Pflugerville address but KXAN confirmed it was not within city limits. A spokesperson for the office was unable to provide additional details because the case involved minors and is still under investigation.
Clark said she never wanted the situation to get violent. She said she is still in disbelief that it led to a shooting.
“You’re always told if your kids have an issue, you go speak to the parent if they can’t resolve it,” Clark said. “You can’t just go around shooting people, almost killing them.”
Clark is raising money on GoFundMe to pay for medical and car bills.
Teen crime in Central Texas
KXAN obtained data from the Austin Police on the number of gun-related crimes involving teens. The numbers are trending lower this year compared to the last two. There were 140 crimes involving teen gun violence in 2022 and 125 in 2023. There have been 64 so far in 2024.
Despite numbers trending lower, Shana Fox, of the Council on at Risk Youth, or CARY, said youth violence is pervasive in Central Texas.
“We’ve seen an uptick in youth violence, specifically around aggression, assault gangs and weapons violence,” she said.
Fox and her team work with high-risk students to empower them with skills to avoid crime and violence.
“We focus on an evidence-based model that we know is effective. It focuses on empathy, social skills and decision-making,” she said. “We know that if students are empowered with these tools they will be more successful. “