Posted on 09/03/2025 4:52:18 PM PDT by Morgana
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A 42-year-old man is charged with murder after he allegedly shot an 11-year-old boy who was playing the "ding dong ditch" game with his friends Saturday night.
Gonzalo Leon Jr. is accused of fatally shooting 11-year-old Julian Guzman on Saturday night.
Court records show that Guzman, his cousin, and some other friends were at a relative's house on Racine Street attending a birthday party. The boys reportedly got bored and decided to play the "ding dong ditch" game around the neighborhood.
Guzman and his cousin were ringing doorbells of homes in the area and running away, records state. A witness said Guzman had run to Leon's home, rang the doorbell several times, and began to run away.
Court records show that's when Leon allegedly walked out of his house, onto a public street, pointed a gun, and fired.
"There was no weapon displayed (by the boy)," Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said. "No theft of property, the young man was shot in the back, on a public street. It's a murder."
Julian was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Sunday.
Leon was initially detained by police Saturday night. Records show he would not talk to the police and asked for a lawyer. Among several reasons that prosecutors could not immediately charge Leon was that the eyewitness did not identify him as the shooter.
"One of the initial issues is that we had a negative ID," Teare said. "But that's explained in any case where you just had a young man who just watched his cousin get gunned down, and show him 6 pictures to identify somebody."
(Excerpt) Read more at abc13.com ...
I’ve heard reports it was midnight.
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Then post the source.
Probably not your best response here.
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She should stop digging. Best response, “hey, I overreacted a bit. I’m really not in favor of shooting 11 year olds in the back”.
Back in the 1960s a bunch of us boys would go camping overnight in wooded areas near or in the neighborhood. Parents weren't there to watch over us. Yes, we'd do stupid stuff. Our favorite was to use a cigarettes as a time fuses for cherry bombs left on porches. These were usually 2:00am gifts to the neighborhood.
On one occasion I shined a very powerful lantern on a passing Huey helicopter; and, was rewarded with four of them landing in the field and deploying a platoon of 101st Air Mobile troops for a terrifying game of Escape and Evasion.
It is also possible to exit a home through the window; so, camp outings were not strictly necessary. So, yeah, boys can always find ways to do things that would surprise their parents. Children can outsmart their parents with little effort. After all, "My little darling would never do something like that!"
Yet people here think I’m cold hearted because I basically said the same thing?
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You are.
Maybe she lives in a different time zone. ;-D
Sorry, sorry, sorry. (Not really) ;-D
They start out ringing door bells and before you know it, they’re wrapping houses. They must be stopped before somebody gets egged. /s
As general rule, that is never recommended. But as a more important general rule, never shoot someone who is fleeing.
Some of the posts here justifying shooting a kid in the back, is one of the reasons Jim can’t raise enough money. Very good people are leaving. The end is near for this site, I’m afraid.
Some people here have had enough with ill mannered “youths” who never get jail time for their crimes. Their single moms get before TV cameras and say “he dindo nuffin” when caught while crying crockodile tears.
These same people remember a time and place when these “youths” feared being sent to reform school or juvy. Kids know they won’t get into trouble for their bad actions so now you have adults who don’t care the outcome on them when something bad happens to them when they do something stupid.
I remember kids doing stuff like that even in the 80’s.
In the 80’s they came out with a home safety escape ladder to escape your home by way of window in case of fire. Most teens were using it to sneak out at night.
Kids and some adults use those laser lights to shine at helicopters and airplanes. Only when they get caught they get in legal trouble now.
I wonder if kids still camp in the woods like they used to? Some places kids can’t even camp in their own back yard like we did.
“The shooter will pay for being a fool and he hurts lawful gun owners with his hot temper and stupidity.
No way this guy is getting out of this one lightly.
Of course, we have to wait and make sure all the facts we read in media are correct. It is always possible they have the facts wrong.”
Exactly. I suspect there is a lot more to this story. Do you all really believe this guy just went flywheel lose and went out and shot the kid willy-nilly? Or do you suspect more was going on and the guy got the burners out and was defending himself or his property from something?
So I’m guessing you’d welcome an intruder into your home in a bad neighborhood.
Take this into account:
The shooting suspect is a 42-year-old Gonzalo Leon, is a military veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan. Detectives found a cache of weapons inside his home.
It wasn’t a one and done:
The boys knocked on Leon’s door several times and ran away.
After ringing the bell, the young boys took off, making it at least 20 feet away before the suspect walked to the edge of his property and two shots rang out — one finding its mark in Julián’s back, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told CNN.
In Houston, Texas, trespassing laws state that a person commits criminal trespass if they enter or remain on someone else’s property without permission. They left but had returned several times.
Another one states: Cass said they knocked on Leon’s door three times in a span of about 15 minutes. The third time, the suspect was “waiting in the shadows” with a gun, according to Cass.
The stupidity has to stop.. in another instance:
In North Texas last month, a man was arrested and charged with aggravated assault after allegedly shooting at three teens who kicked his door.
Damon Wolfe, 58, told police he thought someone was trying to kick his door in late at night.
That’s attempted breaking and entering and shoot to kill is appropriate.
I’ll protect my property anytime.
“”””So I’m guessing you’d welcome an intruder into your home in a bad neighborhood.”””””
Lol, at least try and tune into what is actually being discussed.
It doesn’t matter what I think. I really do not know. We will eventually. He was charged with murder. Not sure if they included any lesser charge like manslaughter.
To charge all the way to murder tells me they probably have good evidence to make that charge.
I love u
But im surprised at that rant
Well it is free republic
Sympathy is always a premium
And you never did lurker?
Come on I don’t believe that
There is no excuse for shooting a fleeing person in the back for ringing your doorbell even if it is a bad neighborhood at night. If the person was bashing in your door, that is totally different.
That does not appear to be the case here.
I wouldn’t condemn the whole site for what a few say that offends you. There are always, on all sites, people who see it different.
I did it once as a kid with a friend. It wasn’t at night. The neighbors saw us and I got a spanking from my parents.
I never did it again.
I've read capital murder is a possibility. Press accounts suggest the homeowner was outside of the home waiting for the perps to come back, which they did..
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