A 14-year-old boy has been sentenced to 26 years in prison for the shooting death of a man last summer.

Fabian Adame, who was 13 at the time of the incident, shot and killed 36-year-old Spenser Slavik last summer outside of a Kroger grocery store on Camp Bowie West in Fort Worth in what appeared to be a robbery.

Those close to the victim were devastated by the loss and even more so by the young age of the alleged offender.

Slavik’s parents, Robert and Tammy Slavik, questioned why Adame was not out playing basketball like other kids his age when speaking to NBC 5.

“How does a 13-year-old even get a gun?” Tammy Slavik asked, NBC 5 reported.

“I mean you want to forgive because he’s so young but then he made such a violent act,” Robert Slavik told NBC 5. “It hurts so bad.”

At the courthouse during Adame’s sentencing, one of Slavik’s friends, Travis Dehorney, gave testimony before the judge. Speaking to NBC 5 afterward, he still had questions.

“I ask God every day why He sent someone to save me, but I could not save him,” Dehorney said Thursday. “I will miss Spenser until I take my last breath.”

On Thursday, Judge Alex Kim addressed his court about the age of Adame.

“It is possible in your case for you to be transferred to the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,” said Kim to Adame, NBC 5 reported. “There is a minimum period of confinement on this for three years. Because of your age, it is possible for you to be released on parole and into the community without seeing me again.”

While the Texas Juvenile Justice Department has the ability to release Adame on parole, Judge Kim emphasized the importance of Adame’s record while in lockup. This means that if Adame behaves in a violent manner and does not demonstrate that he has been properly rehabilitated, he could remain in custody.

If this is the case, another hearing would be arranged before Adame turns 19 years old. He would risk serving the rest of his 26-year sentence as an adult.

“If I feel like you have been rehabilitated, it does not matter how serious the offense is. I have released children on parole even on offenses like capital murder because they are no longer a danger,” Kim added, NBC 5 reported. “The ones that continue to be a danger, in my opinion, because they did not take advantage of the services that we are offering, I will happily transfer them to the adult prison system to complete the remainder of your sentence. It’s entirely possible you will be in prison until your 40th birthday.”

At the time of the shooting, many questioned the growing number of juvenile offenders, with reporting by NBC 5 noting that in Tarrant County alone there were 23 juveniles — 19 boys and four girls — in detention for murder.

In nearby Dallas, as crime continues to increase, there have been multiple fatal shootings committed by young offenders of late.

An argument in January between two teenage girls in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Oak Cliff saw one of the girls — a 14-year-old — grab a firearm and shoot a bystander by mistake. The victim, 11-year-old De’Evan McFall, was fatally wounded, and his death left his family and friends devastated.

Also in January, an 18-year-old capital murder suspect named Joey Fraire was shot and killed by police. The Dallas Police Department’s Fugitive Unit task force had been trying to take Fraire into custody for the killing of 50-year-old Ramon Lemus Zapata on October 13, 2022, in Farmers Branch.