By Muri Assunção
New York Daily News
HOUSTON — A Houston man was arrested on a murder charge after an 11-year-old boy was killed during a “ding-dong-ditch prank” over the weekend, online court records show.
Leon Gonzalo Jr, 42, was booked into the Harris County Jail early Tuesday. He was initially detained for questioning on Sunday, a day after a boy was fatally shot while allegedly knocking on a door and fleeing.
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The boy, who lived in the neighborhood, was part of a group playing the prank recently popularized on TikTok and linked to multiple injuries and deaths in recent years —including an 18-year-old who was fatally shot in Virginia in May.
The group was “ringing doorbells of homes in the area and running away,” Houston police said in a news release.
On Saturday, just before 11 p.m., the group rang the doorbell in the 9700 block of Racine Street and tried to flee. That’s when he was allegedly shot by Gonzalo Jr, investigators said.
“A witness says someone ran out of that house and was shooting at the kids running down the street, and unfortunately, sadly enough, one of the boys who was 11 years old was shot in the back,” Houston police detective Michael Cass told local CBS affiliate KHOU.
The boy, who has not been publicly identified, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead Sunday.
According to Cass, the shooting “wasn’t close to the house” and did not appear to be self-defense.
Several handguns and rifles were found inside the suspect’s home, according to KHOU.
Gonzalo Jr is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
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