Boy, 11, shot dead after playing doorbell-ringing prank in Houston, police say
Boy, 11, shot dead after playing doorbell-ringing prank in Houston, police say
Ding dong ditch used to be a staple of kiddie pranks... for fuck's sake! Do none of these idiots have any real threat assessment? Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?
Do none of these idiots have any real threat assessment?
More that they've got a house full of guns, an ear full of "crime wave!!!" media, and a not insignificant amount of mental illness.
"If someone rings my doorbell and runs away, they're targeting my house for a burglary" is a thing lots of people unironically believe.
Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?
Definitely elements of that, too. But in the sense of feeling like they want to be the hero of a story they've heard on Talk Radio.
A lot of these people are legit delusional.
“If someone rings my doorbell and runs away, they’re targeting my house for a burglary” is a thing lots of people unironically believe.
God help me, I'm going to lose it with the next idiot that I hear this shit from. My parents constantly regurgitate simulacrums of that line. Somehow we've moved on foolish grans mass spamming the emails about people putting tags on your car at the gas station to follow you home... but it's 'moved on' to the insidious new middle-aged twats on facebook losing their minds about shit like kids being kidnapped from their school by secret russian/chinese/iranian/democrat black-ops teams.
"If someone rings my doorbell and runs away, they're targeting my house for a burglary" is a thing lots of people unironically believe.
Is this really a commonly held belief? The fuck? Makes no goddamn sense whatsoever.
None whatsoever. They're bloodthirsty savages. Itching for any excuse to murder someone.
I give it 2 weeks before the shooter is being interviewed on Fox. Whinging about how he's really the victim of some nebulous "woke mob" that drug him online for murdering a child.
As someone raised by conservatives, it's #2. They fantasize about being in a scenario where they have to defend their home with a gun. It's a core component of being a conservative.
Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?
It is exactly this. These are deeply violent people who are actively seeking any reason to hide behind the excuse of self defense.
There is something ingrained in certain people I'm finding. I'm a big dude who can handle himself if need be, but I also have guns cause the state does too. Moved from a more liberal area to this purple pearl in a very red area. Had a girl over one night and heard some rustling outside the door. I put on pants and went to go check it out and she asked me why I wasn't bringing my gun. Jackie, my sister in Christ, we are outside the downtown area of a fairly safe little tourist trap. At the absolute worst it could be is a small black bear that I just scream at. But I'm not going to jail for firing a gun near downtown(although that doesn't tend to stop anyone else around here).
Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?
Too many people are kept in check by fear of getting caught by the law and will turn into savage beasts at the slightest opportunity.
could you imagine the danger they were in by a 10 year old ringing a doorbell?? NO YOU CAN'T!
At 11PM?
Who cares? They rang the doorbell and ran.
Bro I used to be out doing shit on the streets at sleepovers at like 3-4 am. 11 is not the justification that you think it is.
11 PM? So what? Is that when 'the purge' starts in that nasty rat hole state or what?
Well maybe not for an 11 y/o, but sure, high school boys are rarely any more grown up.
Adults: "Kids never go outside and have fun anymore."
Also Adults: "If you step on my property I'll kill you."
Those are different adults saying those things. The gun nuts tend to instill irrational fear in their kids that they should never leave the house unless they are prepared for life-and-death warfare. It’s a sad cycle of paranoid abuse :(
Sometimes it's different adults... It's all part of the same incoherent ideology.
Seems to be a common theme in Texas. Maybe this guy moved from Dallas to Houston.
"A child just rang my doorbell. Folks you do NOT ring doorbells in 2023. My 6 was loaded. Keep your kids away. -Chris"
If you don't want someone to ring your doorbell then why the fuck do you have one? They are usually only secured with two screws. Fuck that guy, he needs to be shot back.
If you remove the doorbell button, it leaves an unsightly hole that faces visitors. Instead, you can remove or deactivate the actual bell part inside your house.
Then, you can put a sign on the door that says not to knock or it will wake the baby, and you may never have to interact with another human ever again.
Good news is that this idiot can no longer threaten kids (or anyone). He was kicked out of the National Weather Association after his asinine posts. He then seemingly died shortly after. I haven't found a cause of death yet.
I haven't found a cause of death yet.
Rang a doorbell.
Oh, at least he'snot out there worried about someone ringing his doorbell now.. Thanks.
The kid was shot in the back You know, cause he was running away and all.
It is wild to me that someone hears their doorbell and their instinct is to grab their gun. I cannot imagine losing your child this way. I know school and mass shootings are awful and kill many more children. The difference is the intent; on some level Americans are aware existing means we could be the victim of gun violence. We do not expect idiots to shoot at us with no intent to go on a killing spree and especially not at our children outside of schools.
I almost don't blame parents for not wanting to let their kids play outside anymore
It is wild to me that someone hears their doorbell and their instinct is to grab their gun
Seriously, my first instinct (like any normal person's) when I hear my doorbell is to pause whatever I'm watching or playing, turn off the speakers, and slowly and silently creep towards the door to peek through the peephole and see if whoever rang without scheduling first has already gone away and I can go back to my normal life.
What am I going to do with a gun, shoot the bastard and cause even more people to come to my door‽
Fox news fucked up this whole generation.
What a shithole country. Total no-go zone.
Are you trying to be ignorant?
Any country that goes through a Sandy-Hook style shooting and doesn't amend their gun control regulations, is a shithole country.
QED.
Are you trying to defend a shithole country where kids get shot for ringing doorbells or going to school?
Trump famously referred to other countries as shithole countries. People often darkly mock him and the us by referring to the us as a shithole country. Not really sure how ignorance plays a role in their comment, but it's possible you're ignorant to that context so just adding that here.
wtf from the cops
a homicide detective with the Houston Police Department, told KHOU, noting the boy’s death does not appear to involve self-defense because the shooting “wasn’t close to the house.”
Implying that if they rang the doorbell and waited (you know, the entire purpose of a doorbell), it could have been considered self-defense? I know, that’s a bit of logical fallacy but wtf
Everyone is entitled to their day in court. This is a cop doing a good job of cutting out any possibility of bullshit weaseling by pointing out that the possibility of self defense doesn’t even need to be debated or discussed.
It just means they don't even need to consider if it could have been in self defense because it was ruled out at step 1. Not that if it passed step 1 it would be guaranteed that it was.
They just want to head off that entire line of defense from the get go.
could have been
as the other user said, yes, exactly. depending on other factors it could have been
i mean i've seen signs in austin, on the same lawn, that say "we don't call the police" with a picture of a gun and "ring my door and i'll shoot"
lovely, warm neighborhood...
So doesn't that person have any deliveries or visitors or anything? Imagine ordering a pizza and then being shocked when some anxious guy (anxious because they got tons of deliveries to make on a deadline or be fired) shows up?
i honestly don't know. i was visiting three houses down and asked, they just shrugged and said welcome to texas
I have one of those shootin' people signs on my lawn. One time, I ordered a pizza. When the pizza delivery person showed up, they were acting mighty shady. So I shot them. That bastard may have been trying to case my place. When the beautiful boys in blue showed up. I showed them my badge and all was good.
Keep Austin Weird Psychotic
I live just outside of Houston, and I've had kids play ding-dong ditch at my house, and honestly it's fucking creepy. It wouldn't bother me during the daytime, when people are around and there are often children playing on my street. But it only happens late at night, when my two little kids are in bed. I check outside and they're gone. My street is well-lit, but I never see them running away. There's a green space nearby that they must be running to, but there's nothing to hide behind there.
Anyway, it's creepy as fuck. I really hate it. If I caught the kid in the act, I'd probably get real serious at him and try to get him to stop. But I'd never point a gun at him. I hope he trips while he's running and busts up his teeth, but I don't want him to die.
The murderer here is completely unhinged.
You could always respond like a normal human being and get a doorbell cam. You can at least see what is going on and maybe go talk to their parents (if you didn’t live in a dystopia where people think it’s ok to just start blasting)
I hope he trips while he’s running and busts up his teeth, but I don’t want him to die.
You hope a child is seriously disfigured and has to endure painful reconstruction and likely very expensive dental bills for... checks notes... annoying you? I mean, at least you don't wish death up on him for playing the prank that nearly every child ever has played. Just serious injury, which is totally OK.
That's obviously hyperbole for "I want them to face some consequences for their actions after alarming me in my home in the middle of the night for their own enjoyment."
Imagine you hear someone trying to kick down your door in the middle of the night. Is this...annoying? Or terrifying?
We can’t all lead a blameless thought life like yourself but I’m sure we’re all hoping you can teach us a few things.
Especially creepy if they're kicking your door in the middle of the night.
I had this happen to us as well, but we put a sign on the door with a please don't ring the door bell, baby is sleeping and it never happened again.
For some reason this also stop solicitors.
"Why don't kids play anymore"
Once saw a mother with kids in her car, drive past another group of kids playing soccer in the street. She's sped past them yelling, "next time I'll just run you idiots over!" (not a busy street at all!) maybe one car every 10 min. Those kids don't play soccer any more.
Had someone fire a gun at myself and 2 friends for doing this when we were teenagers. No vandalism, no destruction, just knocking on the door (friend happened to bang particularly fast and hard while screaming "Satan Loves You") and hightailing it. I also live in the south, so guns a-blazin', I guess.
I've also been threatened with a gun and other acts of violence for dressing in all black and not believing in some bullshit god. Police have also been called on me for sitting in front of the mall in my trenchcoat while waiting on my ride as a teen. And I've had a cop train a gun on me while my friends and I were goofin' around in their backyard.
ahh yes.. time to pay the dead kid tax... we all feel safer though so its totalllly worth all the dead children, right?
At least they have guns so they can resist a hypothetical tyrannical gove-... Never mind.
So safe. This time it was a kid, but next time he might not be so lucky. It could be a delivery driver! The mailman! Someone getting the wrong address! Scary scary times we live in.
A dead kid by lax gun laws is just a necessary evil we have to accept! But heaven forbid they see a nipple, cancel that shit straight away!
Three teenagers rang his door as a prank, and his response is to get in his car, follow them, and then mow them down? Totally reasonable. He was clearly just defending himself. 🙄
There are people that seriously argue that it should be legal to chase down someone who has wronged you in some way and take out any form of revenge you wish against them.
Not that this is an excuse but I'm going to make the assumption that he was addicted to being kept in a perpetual state of fear by fox news etc.
Some teenagers mistakenly banged on the back door of the wrong house near me and the home owner chased them down and fired on their car when they were trying to get away. The kids ran into the woods and the car went missing for a few hours. The home owner was a cop, so anyone paying attention was suspicious where the car went. The whole incident was sweep under the rug, so I assume that either the chief didn't let them plant evidence or there was nothing in the evidence locker to plant.
As far as internet pranks go, it doesn't get much more benign than ding dong ditch
Why is this article not framed as if this was a crime? They never mentioned the shooter or his consequences. It's not illegal to ring a door bell.
The Houston police department have not released the identity of the boy or the occupant of the home, but said a middle-aged man has been arrested and several weapons were later recovered from the home.
It happened on Sunday; that's all the consequences that have happened thusfar. There will likely be a trial, but the justice system moves a lot more slowly than it would have to for there to be anything more than that yet.
Fair enough.
This just in: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/02/us/houston-ding-dong-ditch-shooting-arrest
He's been charged with murder
Oh but gun control laws are not needed are they America? But an old irrelevant document from 150 years ago says otherwise so clearly the matter is closed.
Try 234 years for 2nd Amendment...
Actually, the document doesn't really say that, it's just that we love murdering children so much, that we pretend that is what it says.
I'm not saying anything whatsoever would warrant this, but were the kids at least, like, throwing eggs? Knocking the mailbox over? To fire a weapon at someone for ringing your bell is just so unhinged that how could he even make it that far?
Simple really. Guns are treated like kids toys in the good ol' USA, and "every single mentally deranged psychopath absolutely HAS to be allowed to own one, 'cause that's the only way to stop fascism" - The National Rifle Association 1871-present
Introducing the new Amazon Ring Defender--the only doorbell with a live video feed and live ammunition! Don't like what you see happening on your doorstep? Now you don't have to be home to defend your castle!
I don't care if the kid threw a brick through my window, murdering a child is completely unforgivable and there is zero justification for it.
Imo, the only time shooting someone is even remotely justified is in the defense of someone's life or as a very last resort when there are no other options.
Yes, of course. I'm certainly glad I never got shot for worse shit, believe me. But shooting someone for ringing your doorbell is about 300 levels up. At least I could imagine getting a warning shot at the sky for smashing a window.
And I'm not implying these kids must have done anything other than ring bells and go laugh as someone opens the door to no one. Kids do both.
He was a kid. Running away.
I can't imagine this happening in the Netherlands... Wtf...
It absolutely does happen here. Like this one for example: guy chases young girl with an axe after messing with his doorbell.
https://nos.nl/artikel/2438126-man-wordt-boos-om-belletje-trekken-en-verwondt-man-met-bijl
Don’t mess with the wrong people. You never know what’s going to push them over the edge.
Ja, Limburg. Vandaar. ;)
Edit: the axeguy was stopped by visitors of a local bar while pursuing the little girl. Noone got seriously injured and the unhinged moron was left in police custody.
Now, in the US these kind of stories have a different ending. In the US this guy would've shot the girl and rampaged through that bar.
That girl would have 100% been shot and killed if this happened in America.
Well, shit...
...or really anywhere in the civilised world
When little kids can't even play simple pranks in your country without being shot, your country has serious issues that desperately need addressing (but won't because the administration is so corrupt)
There are federal, state, town, and county layers of administration. They're all corrupt. But not the parents.
I can't imagine living my life so on edge or angry that the door bell ringing would make me shoot someone.
Seriously. I’ll go to bed and leave the door unlocked, go for a run and leave it open so I don’t have to take keys.
Walk home through sketchy areas in the early hours of the morning and live in Manchester a pretty large city.
Twice in 42 years have I had someone try and attack me for no reason. Never had someone break into my house. Heck I went to work one day and left the keys on the lock outside and still nothing.
I'm very very glad I grew up in basically a 90's teen drama town, where most people probably didn't even own hunting rifles, or one newer than 100 years old. I mean, I'm not glad for other reasons, but right now I am.
Cop speak is always so frustratingly literal. They refer to the victim as "the male". He's 11. call him a kid and have some empathy
Black?
Hispanic judging from the name.
Ooooo boy, prison loves them a child killer.
Too many nutjob AmeriKans with guns. If US authorities used the same firearm laws in Europe, over half of the potential gun owners would fail.
This is why I’m glad in Canada guns have to be stored locked.
Not everyone does this, but you have to go through training and and there are serious consequences if you don’t.
If you did this here you would be charged with murder and improper storage of a weapon.
That really wouldn't matter. The guy would have just grabbed the gun out of storage and used it. It's not he wouldn't have the key/combination to his own gun storage.
... By which time the kid may have been gone, or at least far enough away that he would have been hard to hit.
Or, you know, this violent, impulsive sack of shit may have had 10 extra seconds to think about what he was doing and be like "oh yeah, I don't want to go to prison".
If you can go and unlock your gun, load it, get to the door, and shoot this kid then you’ve confirmed to every jury in the country that you murdered them.
Shoot at the problem then deal with the consequences later, it's the American way
Some of these wackos dream of someone trespassing so they can finally shoot someone, but I’m sure their dream doesn’t include the trespasser being armed too.
They have guns and the death penalty but somehow, they can't put together that one leads to the other. It's like the only thing that matters over there is the profit from selling the equipment.
No. The sensational back and forth on the "will they / won't they" every time something happens drives hella clicks.
See, the problem was that the kid didn't have their own gun to shoot back.
ARM OUR KIDS!
Ha, no more stupid pranks in Houston!
There’s always someone way crazier than you think, right in your own neighbourhood. And you never know what tiny thing will push them over the edge to do something like that.
So yeah, parents really need to teach their kids not to do annoying things like that. It can get them seriously hurt - or worse - messing with the wrong people. Us adults know that, children need to be taught that.
I know what you are saying, and i agree, except i don't think the root of the problem is addressed. Those crazy people shouldn't have access to guns.
Even in the 2000s people would call the cops saying there was a robbery when they got dinged. We were like fucken 11 and a police helicopter came overhead it was fucken insane.
Stay classy, h-town.
Yeah, that 11 year old totally deserved to die for ringing someone's doorbell and running away. You're right that the only thing wrong with the story is that the grieving parents know what happened to their child.
I'm glad that the community that's mourning a child is now going to have fewer kids playing mostly harmless pranks.
I can't tell if you're genuinely that awful a human being or if I've just taken the bait.
oh the parents are definitely supposed to know; thats how negative feedback works. raise kid that pranks the neighbors; kid gets pwned. the kid was shot because the kid pranked the neighbor and, had they not, they would be alive. it wouldn't work if the parents didnt know what happened. im just saying the guy played it too loose with the police
Holy fucking shit take batman
Ah yes, superb firearm ownership; shooting at kids running away from you.
The only way to stop a bad kid from ringing doorbells is a good guy with a gun.
That kid was no angel.
I'm sure I missed some right-wing thought-stopping platitudes, I may be back later with more wisdom.
Maybe we shouldn't be talking about this right after it happened??!?! Give the dead child's family some time! Now is not the time for gun control arguments it's the time to come together and support the victims, especially the man who shot the child, nobody thinks of their suffering!
You forgot: The death penalty will deter others
The running away part adds a bonus felony in Texas in addition to the reckless discharge and I'm guessing murder II maybe negligent homicide.
On NextDoor somebody posted a link to this story and the comments were all "see? Kids shouldn't be ringing doorbells and running away like this." Maybe the real lesson is "don't shoot kids in the fucking back"?