State and Hunt County law enforcement are investigating the death of an 11-year-old boy at a residential treatment center near Greenville. State officials with the Texas Department of Health and Human Services said last Thursday that Thompson Residential Treatment Center had been closed and its license revoked.
The child, whose name has not been released, died on the day before Thanksgiving , state officials said. The death occurred at the Majestic 12 Movie Theater on Joe Ramsey Boulevard in Greenville.
The story of the child’s death was first reported by the Austin-based Texas Tribune. The Tribune’s report said the news organization learned of the child’s death from a comment made by state Sen. Angela Paxton during a Feb. 3 Senate Finance Committee hearing. Paxton mentioned that an 11-year-old had died while in the care of a residential treatment center in her district and that the center had been closed and its residents placed elsewhere. Paxton declined a request from the Tribune for further comment, according to the Tribune’s report.
Lone Oak Independent School District Police Chief Joe Sterner told the Tribune that the boy had “sustained a head wound” from an unspecified incident and had also complained of a stomach ache during the days before the child’s death.
The now-closed facility is located at 1995 E. FM 1564, which is just southeast of the Greenville city limits. Hunt County Appraisal District records show the owner of the property as former NFL player Chaun Thompson. Thompson is an alumnus of Mount Pleasant High School and West Texas A&M University. He played for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans from 2003 to 2009. Thompson acquired the property on FM 1564 in 2009. Thompson Residential Treatment Center was first licensed in early 2010.
