An 11-year-old boy has been shot dead in Houston, Texas, while playing a doorbell prank game with friends.
Police said the child was struck several times as he attempted to run from a house in the city’s Eastside neighbourhood on Saturday evening. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.
The Houston police department confirmed a middle-aged man had been arrested in connection with the shooting. Several firearms were recovered from the property. Neither the suspect nor the victim have been publicly named.
According to detectives, the boy and his friends had been playing “ding-dong ditch”, a prank in which doorbells are rung before the perpetrators flee. A witness reported seeing the child ring a doorbell before running away, moments before gunfire was heard.
Detective Michael Cass of Houston homicide unit told local television that a man had emerged from the property and fired at the children as they ran down the street. “Unfortunately, sadly enough, one of the boys, who was 11 years old, was shot in the back,” he said.
Neighbours told local media they had seen a man in handcuffs being escorted by officers to the house where the incident took place.
The prank has been linked to previous fatalities in the United States. Last year, a California man was convicted of murder after deliberately ramming his car into a vehicle carrying six teenagers who had rung his doorbell, killing three. In May, a Virginia man was charged with second-degree murder after fatally shooting a teenager who had recorded himself playing the game outside his home at 3am.
