TX - 10-year old boy dies after being shot by homeowner for playing prank - Houston, Aug 2025

[Leilei]

Breaking news this morning on CNN - the homeowner has been charged with murder.
As he should be, IMO.

 

[Cryptic]

if a lawyer had the brass to try to invoke it it would probably just inflame the jury.

I agree completely. The circumstances are just too criminally stupid, even for castle friendly Texas.
The best course of action maybe to go into extensive plea bargain mode and keep the case out of a jury's hands.

I doubt the State will accept Manslaughter. Second Degree murder would probably be accepted- then try to get additional conditions agreed to such as "no more than 20 years".

But, getting the cool additional agreements maybe very difficult given the age of the victim and the fact that the home owner actually chased the victim down. Thinking that this guy is going to get an LWOP like sentence. Not LWOP technically, but 30 years plus.

 

[Cryptic]

Breaking news this morning on CNN - the homeowner has been charged with murder.
As he should be, IMO.

For the peace of Houston, I sincerely hope that the case does not have a racial / ethnicity spin.

 

[sds71]

A Houston man is accused of murdering an 11-year-old boy after a “ding dong ditch” shooting Saturday – the latest example of a trend that has left children dead.

Leon Gonzalo Jr., 42, was booked into jail Tuesday morning, Harris County court records show. Gonzalo is “the defendant charged with shooting and killing the child,” the Harris County District Attorney’s Office told CNN.

His address matches the address where someone fatally opened fire at the 11-year-old, whom a witness described as running away from the house when he was shot, according to police.

“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.”

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/02/us/houston-ding-dong-ditch-shooting-arrest?Date=20250902&Profile=CNN&utm_content=1756816760&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

 

[arielilane]

ARRESTED: Booking photo of Gonzalo Leon Jr., 42, charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a juvenile male, 11, in the 9700 block of Racine Street on Saturday (Aug. 30).
More info: http://loom.ly/y-kOfx4

https://twitter.com/x/status/1962883207457656856

 

[tlcya]

UPDATE: Suspect Arrested, Charged in Fatal Shooting at 9700 Racine Street

Texas man charged after 11-year-old boy shot dead while playing doorbell prank

Man charged with murder in deadly "ding dong ditch" shooting in Houston

Man charged with murder after 11-year-old boy shot playing 'ding dong ditch'

11

shot in the back while running away

Dead for the offense of playing ding dong ditch. Something I, my siblings, cousins and neighbor friends did as children. None of us ever imagined we could end up dead for it. The worst consequence we could imagine in our 10/11 year old brains was that that crabby old man down on the corner might recognize us and call our moms.

 

[Trebor5591]

I remember I played his game with my brothers when I was just a kid--maybe 7 years old, growing up on a military base. The implied disrespect towards the homeowner in playing this prank never crossed our young minds. I think we stopped the game after I caught a glimpse of anger/frustration on the face of one of our victims. It didn't seem like fun anymore after that. Very glad nothing bad happened to us!

 

[Leilei]

For the peace of Houston, I sincerely hope that the case does not have a racial / ethnicity spin.

The shooter and the victim are both Hispanic, I believe.
IMO.

 

[The4TierBridge]

"The victim is identified as Julian Guzman, 11."

UPDATE: Suspect Arrested, Charged in Fatal Shooting at 9700 Racine Street

 

[ChatteringBirds]

May Julian's family be surrounded by love and support for years to come. I feel this could have been any child. He wasn't even a teenager, just a boy.

 

[tlcya]

Cass said police searched the home where the shooting occured and found a significant number of weapons inside, according to ABC News.
Man arrested after 11-year-old fatally shot after ding, dong, ditch prank

 

[Sarahlou]

What a nasty piece of work. Chasing and shooting a kid in the back!

 

[333_OnlyHalfEvil]

42 years old, just ruined two families because he was irritated. This is a good reminder to always stop and count to ten when emotions get high, before reacting.

 

[mickey2942]

42 years old, just ruined two families because he was irritated. This is a good reminder to always stop and count to ten when emotions get high, before reacting.

Wondering if alcohol had any part of this incident.

 

[EphemerallyAya]

For the peace of Houston, I sincerely hope that the case does not have a racial / ethnicity spin.

Given how late at night it was I don't think it would have been possible for the homeowner to know the child's race. Unless he could see through a ring camera or the like - which would be more incriminating if he could clearly see a child and then still did what he did.

Edit: profanity, sorry

 

[tlcya]

for what it's worth I don't think race played a factor here. Brown victim, brown perp.

This was all arrogance, stupidity, and bravado (and perhaps alcohol or drugs given the holiday weekend) JMO.

 

[MAHBOOBOO]

Copied these from the Harris County Municipal Court website.

20 guns! 4-5 of those AR's....Yeesh - that's A LOT even by our Texas standards.

It's not clear from the wording but it sounds like the kids may have gone back and ding dong ditched his house multiple times that night. As in they'd knock and run and hide, then go do it again a few minutes later to the same house. I'm 43 now but I played Ding Dong Ditch as a kid, as did every kid I grew up with. I never enjoyed it, but it was just a thing kids in our area did. It didn't seem mean, it just seemed like it was supposed to be funny, for both the kids and the people in the houses we were doing it to. We honestly thought the adults were in their houses laughing about it when we did it. That was very naive of us.

I would never have allowed my friends to ding dong ditch the same house repeatedly though, that would have been rude. Of course it doesn't warrant hurting the ding dong ditcher. But I do recommend that parents should advise their children to not target the same house repeatedly if they are going to do this. As a homeowner that's when I've gotten scared.

I'm just kind of mulling over this for those few people that seem to think this is a new fad, it's not at all.

It also sounds like the shooter went into his back yard and hid and waited to catch the kids since he came out through the yard gate the last time they knocked. Which makes a case for this being premeditated.

Cops had to use their PA for 20 minutes to get him to exit the residence. No wonder they went back with SWAT to arrest him days later.

It also says his wife and toddler were home; so the toddler was likely asleep or trying to sleep, which could also tilt this toward being a "crime of passion".

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Sounds like so many visible guns in that house. And a toddler. Really. IMO.

 

[HockeyMomDiva]

The kids in my area (South Orange County, CA) have been doing this recently. I am on a local social media site (won’t name because I don’t know if it’s allowed). I see multiple posts a week regarding kids trying to kick in front doors, damaging garage doors and breaking windows in the middle of the night. It’s a real problem here. In addition, we have a ton of kids that ride e-bikes, not obeying the rules of the road; throwing things at cars and people, vandalizing property , etc. I think that there is a real problem with kids and parents and the lack of accountability for their actions.

I am in no way blaming the victim here, but just shedding some light on how bold these kids have become.

JMO

 

[Leilei]

for what it's worth I don't think race played a factor here. Brown victim, brown perp.

This was all arrogance, stupidity, and bravado (and perhaps alcohol or drugs given the holiday weekend) JMO.

That's where I'm leaning.
IMO.