The victim's parents said their son had a heart for helping others and believed the tragedy could have been avoided.

Your actions caused catastrophic, monumental mourning,” the victim’s father, Philip Smith, told Matthew Purdy at his sentencing hearing.

The man accused of shooting and killing a TCU student in Fort Worth's West 7th district in 2023 pleaded guilty and was sentenced Thursday. Matthew Purdy, 23, pleaded guilty to murder in a court hearing Thursday in connection with the 2023 shooting of TCU junior Wes Smith and was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the murder charge.