Texas man charged with murder in shooting of child playing doorbell prank

A 42-year-old man has been charged with murder for allegedly shooting an 11-year-old boy who rang his doorbell and ran away.

Julian Guzman was playing the “ding dong ditch” prank game of ringing doorbells just before 23:00 local time (05:00 BST) on Saturday night in Houston, Texas, when he was shot, police said.

The man, identified as Gonzalo Leon Jr, was taken into custody on Tuesday and has been booked into Harris County Jail.

“Officers were told that Guzman was ringing doorbells of homes in the area and running away,” the Houston Police Department said in a statement. “A witness stated Guzman was running from a house, after ringing the doorbell, just prior to suffering a gunshot wound.”

Police said Guzman was wounded when they arrived at the scene and was taken to a nearby hospital. He later died on Sunday.

One person was detained on the scene for questioning and later released, they added.

A witness recalled that “someone ran out of that house and was shooting at the kids running down the street”, Houston Police Department’s Homicide Detective Sergeant Michael Cass told KHOU, a local affiliate of the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.

“Unfortunately, sadly enough, one of the boys, who was 11 years old, was shot in the back,” he said.

He added that the shooting “does not look like any type of self-defence”.

“Ding dong ditch” pranks, which are becoming increasingly popular on TikTok, have led to deadly shootings before.

A Virginia man was charged in May with second-degree murder for allegedly shooting a teenager who was filming a TikTok video of himself playing the prank on the man’s home, the New York Times reported.

A California man was found guilty of murder in 2023 for killing three teenaged boys by ramming his car into them after they had rung his doorbell as a prank, according to the Associated Press.