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’m not an old man but I’m not 29 any longer. When I lived alone I had the doorbell ringers at 2 AM.
It is very loud and gets the adrenaline pumping, because these days nobody is quite sure what’s what.
He could have used a pellet gun or something non-lethal. What a wanker
No I don’t think the kid should get the death penalty for a prank.
However I think the child put him self in a position where he could get himself shot and that is exactly what happened. Messing around with people’s homes late at night leads to no good, well he brought it on himself.
So, would you shoot them as they fled?
A couple questions then: What is retreating? Is it when the assailant turns and runs away from you or something else? If not something else then how do you know the assailant isnt going for cover/concealment to continue the fight, going for help to escalate the fight or going for other weapons?
Home invaders usually dont ring the doorbell. They rush up and kick/break the door in. They may try to impersonate police. Sometimes they have someone act like they are a deliveryman of some kind ringing the door, and then a bunch come running around once the door is open, but you dont get ups or fedex at 11pm. If its a food guy, you know you didnt order anything.
It is being reported that soon to be former home owner was not asleep, but behind a gate or fence waiting for the kids to return.
If that is accurate, it is premeditated, and in Texas that gets you a 6:00 in the evening date with a needle in Huntsville.
It was after hours okay? The sun was down. When I was a kid we never played this game after dark.
Think about it, it’s late, dark outside and this dude is chilling in his home when someone keeps banging on his door. That is the point to all of this. He had no idea what was going down.
Of course not, but both were stupid.
Actually you remind me of a point here. You want two doors on all external doors. You always want a locking metal storm door. Most dont have a deadbolt, but you can install one. Give yourself another layer of protection, another one that adds delay or makes them decide not to go after your place.
There are two types of gun owners - one that hopes to never shoot a person, and one that fantasizes about the day. This is the latter type.
Kid didn't ring the doorbell, but was banging on the door. Its not clear whether it was knocking with a first or kicking the door.
I wonder what his BAC was at the time of the shooting.
I agree with you. But for what I know at this point, this isn’t an offense that required lethal use of force.
Ding dong ditch isnt something that requires lethal use of force. I just don’t see how that can be justified. And to be clear I am only talking specifically about ding dong ditch: ringing a doorbell and running away. Anything more than this, isn’t ding dong ditch.
“””””When I was a kid we never played this game after dark.”””””
You’re a girl, I doubt you did much of anything wild, especially after dark, although dark is when the game is played.
I assume you have evidence for that assertion? Or is it merely opinion asserted as fact?
It’s not harmless to be sleep deprived especially if you have a job that requires you to be alert.
One thing that helps is installing an on/off switch on your chime circuit. So you can turn the doorbell off when you want.
If you have a modern smart doorbell, pretty sure you can change if/how it alerts you at certain times of the day.
Well see, thats technically not ding dong ditch, then.
The old Zimmerman take is coming back I bet.
Gonzalo Leon Jr. is toast and he deserves to be.
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