An 11-year-old boy died in a Houston hospital Sunday after he was shot while carrying out a “ding dong ditch” prank the previous night, police said. The boy hasn’t been identified.
The Houston Police Department said the boy had been playing the prank with friends late Saturday, which entails ringing the doorbell of a home and running away before anyone inside comes out to answer it. A witness saw the boy ring a doorbell in east Houston and flee the property before he was struck by gunfire, according to a police statement.
Officers received a call about the shooting just before 11 p.m. local time. Police said the boy was wounded when they arrived and taken to a nearby hospital, where he died on Sunday. Sgt. Michael Cass, a Houston homicide detective, told CBS News affiliate KHOU that a witness had recalled someone exiting the house that was pranked and “shooting at the kids running down the street.”
Cass told KHOU that “unfortunately, sadly enough, one of the boys, who was 11 years old, was shot in the back.”
A man was detained at the home where the shooting happened and questioned by homicide detectives on Sunday, KHOU reported. But Houston police later said the person was released after questioning. They asked anyone with information about the case to contact the department as their investigation into the shooting continues.
“Ding dong ditch” pranks have culminated in deadly shootings before.
In 2023, a California man was found guilty of murder for intentionally ramming the car of three teen boys who rang his doorbell as a prank, killing all of them, the Associated Press reported. More recently, in May, a man was charged with second-degree murder in Virginia after he shot and killed a teenager who had filmed a TikTok video of himself playing the doorbell prank on the man’s home, according to The New York Times.
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
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