A Texas man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of an 11-year-old boy who played a doorbell prank.
Houston police charged Gonzalo Leon Jr., 42, with murder in the death of Julian Guzman, 11. Police said Guzman and his friends were pranking neighbors by ringing doorbells and running away from homes around 11 p.m. Saturday.
“Officers were told that Guzman was ringing doorbells of homes in the area and running away,” the Houston Police Department said in a statement. “A witness stated Guzman was running from a house, after ringing the doorbell, just prior to suffering a gunshot wound.”
Guzman was pronounced dead at a hospital on Sunday from multiple gunshot wounds. Leon was charged with the boy’s murder and booked into Harris County Jail on Tuesday.
Houston Police Sgt. Michael Cass told KHOU it doesn’t appear to be a case of self-defense. Witnesses said Guzman was running away when he was shot in the back.
“In my opinion, it does not look like any type of self-defense,” Cass said. “It wasn’t close to the house.”
In May, an 18-year-old in Virginia was fatally shot while playing a doorbell prank. And in 2023, a 14-year-old girl in Louisiana lived after she was shot in the back of the head by a homeowner while playing hide-and-seek on his property. Two months later, a man in Tennessee was charged after he allegedly pulled a gun on a group of teens playing a “ding dong ditch” game, police said.
