A 42-year-old man in Texas has been charged with murder after the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy who was playing a doorbell prank in Houston on Saturday night, authorities said.
The shooting occurred at around 11pm on Saturday, according to Houston authorities, when the boy and his friends were in their neighborhood reportedly playing a game of “ding dong ditch” – an old childhood prank involving ringing a doorbell and running away.
Houston police officials told local news site KHOU 11 that someone inside one of the homes came outside and opened fire, and one of the boys, who was 11 years old, “was shot in the back”.
The boy was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Sunday, the police said.
One person was initially detained for questioning at the scene and later released, police added.
On Tuesday morning, court records show that a man named Leon Gonzalo Jr, 42, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the shooting.
He was booked into the Harris county jail early Tuesday. According to CNN, his home address matches the location where the fatal shooting occurred. A preliminary court hearing is scheduled for later Tuesday.
Houston police sergeant Michael Cass told KHOU that the shooting did not appear to be in self-defense, noting that the shooting “wasn’t close to the house”.
In recent years, the ding dong ditch prank, which has gained new popularity on social media, has involved other deadly tragedies.
In 2023, a man in California was convicted of murder after intentionally ramming his car into a group of six teenagers who had rung his doorbell. Three of them were killed.
Earlier this year, in May, a man in Virginia was charged with second-degree murder after fatally shooting a teenager who was filming a TikTok video of a doorbell prank at the man’s home around 3am, according to local authorities.
