An 11-year-old boy was fatally shot on Saturday night while playing a game known as “ding dong ditch” in Houston, Texas. Collision occurred around 11 p.m. The kid was just doing the classic childish prank of ringing a doorbell and fleeing. Authorities have arrested and charged the suspect, 42-year-old Leon Gonzalo Jr., with murder in the shooting. This situation has highlighted the real threats posed by the increasing trend of dangerous pranks.
In fact, Houston police declared immediately after the shooting that it did not seem like an act of self-defense. As he explained, by the time the house was reached, the chase had moved well past it. He suggested that the child was not an imminent danger to the home when he was shot. After the accident, first responders took him to a local hospital where he received only provisional treatment. Sadly, he succumbed early Sunday morning.
This horrible incident is part of a larger trend where doorbell pranks have led to violent incidents in recent years. Just in May, a man in Virginia was charged with second-degree murder. He later fatally shot a teenager who had been filming a TikTok video of a doorbell prank on his house in the middle of the night. In California, one man was convicted of murder this past spring. He indiscriminately drove his car full speed into a crowd of six teenagers who had just rung his doorbell, killing three of them instantly.
Gonzalo Jr. was arrested and booked into Harris County Jail early Tuesday. His next preliminary court hearing is already set for later that same day. Early police reports indicated that cops arrested just one suspect for questioning at the site of the shooting. They turned around and set that person free.
The youngins are all hyped up about the revival of the “ding dong ditch” prank on TikTok. Unfortunately, this trend has led to an alarming lack of concern for safety and common decency. All communities affected are still wrestling with the effects of these dangerous pranks. This new case once again shows that what appear to be games can become deadly.