BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The Rev. Jorge Gomez was counseling worried parents and frightened students late into the night the day police fatally shot an eighth-grader brandishing what appeared to be a handgun inside his South Texas school.

The parents said their children weren’t eating, some were running fevers, and needed to talk to someone.

The death of 15-year-old Jaime Gonzalez has shaken this neighborhood along the U.S.-Mexico border, where parents already burdened by economic woes and street gangs are now faced with explaining the tragedy to their children.

Making it especially hard: It remains unclear to his parents and investigators why Jaime — a drum major who danced in his church’s annual religious festival, stayed out of gangs and had two parents who closely watched him — could swerve off course and bring a weapon to school. The weapon, police later determined, was a pellet gun.