A man in Houston was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy who rang his doorbell and ran away, the authorities said on Tuesday. The boy was playing a prank known as “ding dong ditch.”
The man, Leon Gonzalo Jr., 42, was scheduled to appear in the 177th District Court in Harris County, Texas, on Tuesday, the Houston Police Department said in a statement. He was charged on Monday and taken into custody on Tuesday, the police said.
The boy, Julian Guzman, and several of his friends had approached a home and rang the doorbell just before 11 p.m. on Saturday in a neighborhood in the east area of Houston, the police said. A witness stated that the boy was running from a house when he was shot, the statement said.
The boy was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead on Sunday, the police said.
Lt. Amber Khan of the Houston Police Department told KHOU, a CBS affiliate, that the “person inside that house came out and shot at” the boy, and that he had “a couple of gunshot wounds.”
The ding dong ditch prank, which has become widespread on TikTok, has led to other cases with fatal repercussions. In May, a Virginia man was charged with second-degree murder after fatally shooting a teenager who was filming the prank with two friends, according to court records and local authorities.
In 2020, a man in California crashed into a car of six teenagers, killing three of them, after they played a similar prank on him. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2023.
Christine Hauser is a Times reporter who writes breaking news stories, features and explainers.
The post Houston Man Is Charged in Boy’s Killing Over ‘Ding Dong Ditch’ Prank appeared first on New York Times.
