‘Collapsed asking for help’: Houston man charged in boy’s killing over ‘ding dong ditch’ prank
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The Houston Police Department said Gonzalo Leon Jr, the suspect in the killing of an 11-year-old boy, was taken into custody on Sept 2.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Christine Hauser
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HOUSTON, Texas – 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 US authorities said on Sept 2. The boy was playing a prank known as “ding dong ditch”.
The Houston Police Department said in a statement that Gonzalo Leon Jr, 42, was taken into custody on Sept 2. He had a probable cause hearing scheduled for the same day on the charges, which were filed in the 177th District Court in Harris County, Texas, a court official said.
The boy, Julian Guzman, and several of his friends had approached a home and rang the doorbell just before 11pm on Aug 30 in a neighbourhood in the east area of Houston, the police said. A witness stated that the boy was running from a house where he had rung the doorbell when he was shot, the statement said.
One witness reported first hearing a gunshot as both he and the boy were running away, and then turning back to look at the house, according to a complaint filed in court. There, the witness said he had seen a person “described as wearing all black, extend his arm and shoot one more time” towards the boy, who “collapsed to the ground, asking for help”, according to the filing.
The boy was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead on Aug 31, the police said. It was not clear whether the man charged had a lawyer.
Lieutenant 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 the local authorities.
In 2020, a man in California drove 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. NYTIMES
