Galveston grieves after teen’s death
Man just out of prison is accused in fatal crash
When Aaron Sanders spoke to the congregation at Coastal Community Church in Galveston on Sunday, he had a tough message to deliver. A 14-year-old from the church’s youth group had died Friday night after a man who was just released from prison and who police suspect had been drinking crashed into a Jeep.
Sanders had watched Mason Nelson grow up, developing a reputation for being a sweet, polite, kind kid who was dedicated to playing baseball and a devoted best friend to his dad. Nelson had just started his freshman year at Ball High School and planned to go out for the junior varsity team.
With characteristic dedication, Nelson had been practicing baseball drills the day he died.
On Sunday, Sanders balanced his hope for strength for the community with processing his own grief. Sanders had been at church the day before when some 200 people gathered to remember Nelson and pray for the kids still hospitalized from the crash. Sanders tried to give comfort by being present.
“We don’t understand why,” Sanders said in an interview with the Chronicle, explaining that he still put his trust in the goodness of God. “There really are no words that can make it all better.”
The Galveston community was mourning the loss of a young man with a whole life he had yet to live — and questioning why it happened. Police said 28-year-old Keith Brazier was driving a Toyota SUV with one passenger when he hit the Jeep at high speed around 6 p.m. right by the high school. Nelson and four others were inside; two were hospitalized in critical condition.
Brazier was scheduled for release on parole that day from a prison unit in Huntsville, online records show. His early release was first reported by the Galveston County Daily News.
Brazier was convicted of DWI in Galveston County three times — in October 2016, January 2020 and December 2021, according to court records. He was sentenced to three years in prison after the third conviction but was released after a little more than three months in jail and eight months in prison.
“Prison doesn’t help,” said Tyler Flood, a DWI criminal de
fense attorney who is not representing Brazier but is familiar with the system and advocates for probation with required treatment and alcohol supervision. “That doesn’t solve the problem. It doesn’t address the problem. That’s just punishment.”
Police said Brazier was arrested on a murder charge with bail set at $500,000. He was no longer in jail or at the hospital Sunday, though it was unclear if he had posted bail.
Whatever systemic failure may have led Brazier to his alleged drunken driving contributed to the tragic outcome. A father lost his child. A church community lost a young member. It also wasn’t the first such death of the summer: In August, a drunken driving suspect allegedly killed four relatives in Galveston from out of town as they rode in a golf cart. One was 4 years old.
Superintendent Jerry Gibson of the Galveston Independent School District said Nelson’s death was “senseless.” Nelson was a good student and a better person, Gibson said. The school district plans to have counselors and ministers available at school Tuesday for anyone in need of help. Even the school board president, Anthony Brown, had known one of the other students in the wreck since birth.
“Galveston’s a small enough town where we all know each other,” Brown said. “We all care about each other. We really feel it when something like this happens.”
Nelson’s Instagram account shows photos from a carefree time this summer at Camp Longhorn, where kids swam, posed for silly pictures and painted their faces green. He was athletic and wellliked. He captioned one post from the end of eighth grade with a Ferris Bueller quote: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once and a while, you could miss it.”
His father, Reid Nelson, was left living a nightmare without his best friend. He said he felt like he had lost everything with his son’s death. The single parent’s days revolved around his child, as he drove him to school and talked with him about their lives. The younger Nelson was always ready on time and committed to putting in extra time at baseball practice. They were a team, he said.
The father knew his son was well-liked. Since his death, he had seen he was beloved. Friends had reached out to share how he had helped strengthen their relationship with God. The whole community, where the elder Nelson, too, had grown up, had poured out love. But the dad knew he couldn’t bring his kid back.
“This is just such a tragedy for this town,” he said.