Suspect in TCU student’s murder admits shooting him 3 times, has robbery record: police
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Wes Smith
Texas Christian University junior and former Horned Frog football team member Wes Smith was fatally shot in the West 7th district in the early hours of Sept. 1, 2023. Here’s everything we know about what happened.
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The man who was arrested and faces a murder charge in the early Friday killing of a TCU student in Fort Worth’s West 7th entertainment district did not know the victim and could not offer a clear reason to explain why he shot him, but admitted to the crime and has a criminal record that includes robbery, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Matthew Purdy, 21, was arrested after police found TCU student Wes Smith, also 21, lying in a street with multiple gunshot wounds.
Purdy is on probation after last year pleading guilty to aggravated robbery, according to Tarrant County court records. He was not supposed to possess or buy a gun as part of the conditions of his probation.
Purdy pleaded guilty in September 2022 to robbery causing bodily injury after he was accused of robbing two people in downtown Fort Worth in July 2021. He was placed on deferred adjudication with community supervision for eight years, court records show. Following his arrest in the homicide on Friday, prosecutors filed a petition to have him convicted and sentenced to prison on the robbery charges.
The court document also says Purdy tested positive for marijuana during his supervision after the robbery arrest.
According to court records, Purdy gave his address as the Presbyterian Night Shelter, indicating he likely had been experiencing homelessness.
But Toby Owen, CEO of the Presbyterian Night Shelter, said there is no record of Purdy ever staying there. Purdy is not in the database at that shelter or any other shelter in Tarrant County, according to Owen.
“We work closely with law enforcement to make sure we are good partners with one another,” he told the Star-Telegram over the phone.
An officer who was on patrol heard gunshots about 1 a.m. Friday in the 3000 block of Bledsoe Street, Fort Worth police said. The officer found Smith on the ground, and he died within the hour at a hospital.
Smith was standing on a sidewalk when Purdy approached and shot him three times, police said.
Purdy confessed to police that he approached Smith and shot him in the stomach, shoulder and, after he fell, the back of the head, according to an affidavit supporting an arrest warrant. Purdy told Homicide Unit Detectives Jerry Cedillo and Joey McAnally that he shot Smith in the head because he wanted to “make sure he was dead,” according to the affidavit.
The suspect could not provide a clear reason why he killed Smith, but told the detectives he shot the college student after asking him if he knew Purdy’s father, who the suspect said was assaulted in the past near 7th Street.
In an interview with police, a witness said Purdy shot Smith twice and again when he fell. Purdy also hit a witness in the back of the head with a gun, injuring her, Cedillo wrote in the affidavit.
Purdy told police he would have fired more shots and shot a witness if his gun had not run out of ammunition, according to the affidavit.
Purdy ran from the scene and was found in the middle of a Farrington Field parking lot, police said.
The shooting scene was near a bar called Your Mom’s House, close to the intersection of Bledsoe and Norwood streets and east of University Drive.
In city surveillance video, officers saw Smith standing on a sidewalk adjacent to Your Mom’s House bar shortly before the shooting.
A short time later, a man wearing a backpack was seen in the video walking toward Smith and appeared to be speaking to him. Police said they later identified the man as Purdy.
After a moment, Smith fell in the street, and Purdy stood over him, officers saw in the video. Purdy then ran west toward South University Drive.
Purdy was found walking in the Farrington Field lot, less than a half mile from shooting scene, after officers in a helicopter directed officers on the ground there.
Purdy refused to stop and walked away from officers, but was eventually detained, according to the affidavit.
Officers patted Purdy down but apparently did not detect a pistol hidden in his pants before placing him in the back of a patrol car. Several minutes later, Purdy took his 9mm handgun apart and threw pieces of it from the patrol car when an officer opened a door, according to the affidavit.
Bond for Purdy was set at $500,000, and he was transferred to the Tarrant County Jail on Friday afternoon. A defense attorney for the suspect is not listed in court records.
Police took custody of Purdy’s backpack, on which there was fresh blood, a white T-shirt with red stains and swabs of his body that could be tested for gunshot residue, according to a police record.
Staff writers Emerson Clarridge and Harriet Ramos contributed to this report.
This story was originally published September 1, 2023 at 9:21 PM.
