An 11-year-old boy was fatally shot in Houston, Texas, on Saturday after playing the 'ding-dong ditch' prank, according to police. The boy and his friends were ringing doorbells in an eastside neighbourhood when a resident opened fire.
Police said the boy was struck multiple times as he ran from a house. A witness reported seeing the boy ring a doorbell and flee before being hit by gunfire. The suspect, described as a middle-aged man, has been arrested and several weapons were recovered from his home.
Houston homicide detective Michael Cass told local media that a witness saw someone exit the house and 'shooting at the kids running down the street'. 'Unfortunately, sadly enough, one of the boys, who was 11 years old, was shot in the back,' Cass said.
The identity of the boy and the suspect have not been released. The incident echoes previous cases where doorbell pranks turned deadly, including a 2023 California case where a man was convicted of murder for ramming his car into teenagers, and a Virginia shooting in May where a man was charged with second-degree murder for killing a teenager filming the prank.
