1 mile down the road the truck started to sputter and cut off and now it will not crank?

Hello, I have a 2001 Chevy silverado with the 4.8 ltr engine. It's the smaller V8 that they put in that model. Well, lately (about a month) when I go to start the truck for the first time in the morning, It just turns over for about 3-6 seconds and then finally starts no problems. The truck has also been sputtering slightly from time to timewhile driving on the highway. The truck is always running out of gas. (I've owned it for a year and my son has ran it out probably 15 times if not a little more.) I was told this was very bad for a fuel injected engine. If it's not out of gas then it is very low on gas. Anyway, my son was coming home the other day and he ran out of gas. Once I got there and put ten dollars worth of gas from a can into the tank, we primed the lines and then he drove off. About 1 mile down the road the truck started to sputter and cut off and now it will not crank? Could this be the fuel pump? Fuel injectors? I heard the fuel pump can overheat if you're running your truck with low fuel. Could it just be trash in the lines? Please help he goes to college next week and he needs his truck to commute. Thanks!