Kenneth Payne, 15, a male from Houston, was shot on the evening of September 19, 2025, after a confrontation spilled out across the forecourt of a gas station on North Braeswood Boulevard. Witnesses told police that two groups argued and fought at the station around 7:15 p.m.; as people began to leave, shots were fired toward a vehicle, and Kenneth Payne, 15, was hit.
Friends rushed him to a hospital on Beechnut Street, where doctors pronounced him dead shortly after he arrived, and detectives from HPD’s Homicide Division began piecing together what happened from security footage and witness accounts.
In the days that followed, investigators worked the case as tips filtered in and the scene at 5330 North Braeswood was reexamined. The initial notice from police named Kenneth Payne, 15, and set out the sequence of the argument, the retreat, and the gunfire—an ordinary Friday turning in minutes into a fatal flight to the ER. The appeal for information went citywide as the department emphasized the absence of an identified suspect in those first hours, pressing anyone who had seen the scuffle or the shots to call.
By early October, detectives announced a break. On October 3, Houston police said they had arrested 17-year-old Braelin James and charged him with murder in the 337th Criminal District Court. According to the update, Kenneth Payne, 15, was struck when a suspect fired at the group’s vehicle as it left the gas station; officers later detained James on unrelated charges and then tied him to the shooting, formalizing the case with a booking photo and charge details.
Local outlets echoed the police account: Kenneth Payne, 15, had been shot during the brief, volatile aftermath of a fight outside the Meyerland-area station; investigators said James was identified as the shooter and taken into custody after that separate arrest. As of those reports, police described an argument escalating to gunfire and pointed to continuing investigative steps, including the search for additional evidence such as the firearm.
