A 42-year-old man in the United States has been charged with murder after a “ding dong ditch” prank ended in tragedy, leaving an 11-year-old Houston boy dead on Saturday.
The incident marks yet another fatal case linked to a TikTok-inspired trend that has recently claimed the lives of children.
According to Harris County court records, Leon Gonzalo Jr. was booked into jail on Tuesday morning.
His listed residence matches the address where shots were fired at the boy, who, according to witnesses, was running away from the home after ringing the doorbell when he was struck.
“Officers were told the male was ringing doorbells of homes in the area and running away,” police said. “A witness stated the male was running from a house, after ringing the doorbell, just prior to suffering a gunshot wound.”
Houston police homicide Sgt. Michael Cass clarified that the case did not appear to involve self-defense, explaining that the shooting “wasn’t close to the house,” CNN affiliate KHOU reported.
Authorities have not released the name of the young victim. Gonzalo Jr. is expected to make his first court appearance on Tuesday.
“Ding dong ditching,” an age-old prank where individuals ring doorbells and flee, has surged in popularity as a social media challenge. Variations often shared on TikTok show pranksters pounding on or even kicking front doors.
In May, a similar prank turned deadly when an 18-year-old high school senior in Virginia was shot while attempting to film a “ding dong ditch” video for TikTok, The New York Times reported. The accused gunman in that case faces a second-degree murder charge.
The risks of the trend were highlighted earlier as well. In 2020, a California man killed three 16-year-olds by deliberately ramming their car in retaliation for a “ding dong ditch” prank.
He was later convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced in 2023 to life without the possibility of parole.
In Houston, police said the 11-year-old boy and his friends had been playing “ding dong ditch” on Racine Street, not far from their homes, shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday. A person inside one house allegedly came out and fired at the boy as he fled.
The child was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Sunday.