A Houston man has been charged with murder after allegedly fatally shooting an 11-year-old boy who was playing a game of “ding-dong ditch.”
Gonzalo Leon Jr., 42, was booked Tuesday in the Harris County jail in connection with the Saturday night shooting, according to jail records. It’s not clear if he has obtained an attorney.
Investigators told NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston that a group of children was playing the game — where someone rings a doorbell or knocks loudly on a door and then runs away — at a home in Houston’s Eastside when the 11-year-old boy was shot. He was identified on Tuesday as Julian Guzman.
“Officers were told that Guzman was ringing doorbells of homes in the area and running away,” Houston police said in a news release. “A witness stated Guzman was running from a house, after ringing the doorbell, just prior to suffering a gunshot wound.”
The shooting was reported about an hour before midnight. The child was pronounced dead on Sunday at the hospital.
The district attorney’s office said officers detained one person at the scene for questioning and then released the person.
