‘Ding dong ditch’ now comes with a side of bullets as Houston kid killed over doorbell prank

Yet another ding dong ditch has ended in a fatality after an 11-year-old boy was shot in Houston this past Sunday.

For the few who are uninitiated, ding dong ditch is a game whereby mostly children ring the bell of a neighbor and dash away before they get to the door. It’s a game that goes as far back as the technology of house bells itself. Doorbell cams might have upped the ante on what kind of shenanigans you can pull off on someone’s doorstep, but nothing quite measures up to the thrill of almost getting caught as you run from the door you just rang. Well, now there’s a disturbingly growing trend of homeowners actually shooting the children who ring their bells.

NBC reports that a shooting was reported in Houston on the 9700 block of Racine Street. A boy had been ringing bells in the area close to midnight on Saturday before getting shot. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died early on Sunday. Reportedly, the boy had been playing around with friends, but only he got fatally injured.

This has sadly become a growing trend. While stories of young people being shot before reaching adulthood have been a constant presence in the news this year, this trend is slightly different because it’s largely adults who are shooting the children. Another young man, aged around 18, was also shot in Virginia this spring for participating in ding dong ditch. The 18-year-old was reportedly recording videos of his game on TikTok with friends, and the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office promptly arrested the homeowner, who claimed he thought invaders were ringing his bell.

In 2023, there was yet another homeowner in California who took very drastic measures against kids who were playing ding dong ditch at his door. He reportedly ran them down. He was later arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

Being angry at children playing around is no excuse for the uncontrollable rage being exhibited. Lives should not be lost just because your bell rang and, when you opened, you saw a couple of teenage boys running away. One neighbor, Theresa Jones, who lives near the 11-year-old boy who was shot, told the press, “We shouldn’t have guns around kids, period. Because a bullet doesn’t have a name.”

Even President Donald Trump recently weighed in on what he called “senseless violence” in New York City. The situation, which has since been recognized as the worst mass shooting in the city in the past 25 years, drew the president to condemn such acts of people choosing to handle civil differences tragically and violently.

There’s little to say in terms of how to end this, because it’s hard to even understand how things got here. The trivializing of children’s lives should never have reached this point, because this is more than just a safety concern for homeowners — it’s a problem of rage. It might be time to embrace a culture of unity and understanding, because kids should not be dying over ding dong ditch.