A 42-year-old Texas man faces a murder charge in the shooting of an 11-year-old boy after the victim and his friends hit the suspect door on Saturday night in what the police described as a joke of “Ding-Dong’s fall” who has been in Tiktok and other social media platforms, the authorities said.
The suspect, Leon Gonzalo Jr., was arrested and reserved in the Harris County prison on Tuesday morning, accused of a murder charge, according to the records of the Harris County Court.
The shooting took place around 10:55 pm on Saturday in a house in southeastern Houston, according to the Houston Police Department.
The child, which the police initially said he was 10 years old, was declared dead in a hospital on Sunday afternoon, according to a statement issued by the Police. Police identified the victim on Tuesday as Julian Guzman, 11.
“The officers were told that the male was scamling the bells of houses in the area and fleeing. A witness declared that the man was fleeing a house, after touching the bell, just before suffering a gunshot wound,” Houston’s homicide detectives said.
Reserve Photo by Leon Gonzalo Jr.
Houston Police Department
It was not clear if Gonzalo is the owner of the house where the kick joking occurred at the door, or if he only lived there.
The supposedly committed joke in Houston is similar to what is called the “door kick challenge”, a national trend based on an old joke called “Ding Dong Ditch”, in which groups of children record videos of themselves kicking and hitting household doors and apartments before fleeing and then publishing the videos on social media platforms such as Tiktok.
It is believed that Gonzalo is the same person detained by the police immediately after Saturday’s shooting. He was discharged after being questioned, but was arrested again after the child was declared dead in a hospital around 2 pm at local time on Sunday, the Houston Police sergeant. Michael Cass said at a press conference during the weekend.
Cass said a raid order was delivered at home, and a significant number of weapons inside the house was found.
Cass said the boy who was shot in the back lived one block from the house.
Homicide detectives seek evidence, on September 1, 2025, outside a house in Houston, where an 11 -year -old boy was shot after interpreting a door jet joke to a neighbor.
Ktrk
The victim and at least two of her friends had been spinning for her neighborhood by hitting or kicking doors and fleeing, Cass said. Cass said the preliminary information indicates that the victims and their friends ran down the street after hitting the suspect door.
“Our witness says that the suspect left the door, ran out to the street and was shooting along the way,” Cass said.
He said the victim was able to run around one block before collapsing in the street.
“In my opinion, it does not resemble any kind of self -defense,” Cass said.
The fatal shooting follows a series of incidents throughout the country associated with the challenge of kicks at the doors on social networks.
In July, a 58 -year -old Texas owner was arrested and accused of aggravated assault when he allegedly fired multiple rounds to a vehicle that fled his house in Frisco after someone hit the main door, according to a statement from the Frisco Police Department.
The driver of the car who was shot at 10:50 pm on July 28 and two passengers contacted the police to file a complaint, showing the officers three bullet holes in the vehicle, according to the police.
“However, during later interviews, everyone admitted Ding, Dong, leaving a random neighborhood when they were confronted by a man with a firearm,” said the Frisco police in a statement.
In June, the police in Chandler, Arizona, published video images of a group of minors who committed the “door kick challenge”, claiming that the group took the joke to the same house at least 18 times, which led the owner to move.
This is a development story. Consult the updates again.
