An 11-year-old boy has died after being shot multiple times while playing “ding, dong, ditch” on a Houston resident, police say.
The child and several of his friends ran from door to door pressing buzzers trying to evade residents who answered, in the east area of the city on Saturday evening, cops said.
As the kids ran from a house near Mimbrough and Fidelity streets just before 11 p.m., someone chased after them with a weapon and started firing rounds, a witness told KHOU 11. The victim, who has not yet been identified, was struck in the back, Houston Police Department said.
Emergency responders with the Houston Fire Department transported the victim to a hospital in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds. The boy succumbed to his injuries on Sunday afternoon, police said.
Police said a person was detained at the scene for questioning by homicide detectives on Sunday morning before being released. No arrests had been made by Monday morning. While executing a search warrant at the property, investigators said they collected several rifles and handguns as evidence.
Investigators are reviewing surveillance footage and are working with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office on possible charges.
Sergeant Michael Cass, a homicide detective with the Houston Police Department, told the CBS News affiliate that the suspect would “more than likely” face a murder charge.
Cass said the boy’s death did not appear to involve self-defense because the shooting “wasn’t close to the house.”
Neighbors were shocked after the seemingly innocent prank ended in tragedy.
“What harm could they have done? Playing with a doorbell? That’s the part that really kind of hurts the heart,” one resident told the news station. “For someone to shoot him in the back, they knew they were a kid. What’s the purpose of it?”
Another neighbor urged potential pranksters against “going knocking on people’s doors.”
As ding-dong-ditch pranks surged after being posted to TikTok, other injuries have been documented in recent years.
An 18-year-old high school senior in Virginia was shot and killed in May while filming the stunt for the social media platform.
In 2020, a California man rammed a car carrying six teenagers after they pulled a similar prank, killing three 16-year-olds. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2023.
