11-year-old boy shot dead while playing doorbell prank in Houston

An 11-year-old boy has died after being shot while playing a doorbell prank with other children in east Houston, according to police. The shooting happened late Saturday night near Mimbrough and Fidelity streets. Investigators said a group of kids had been running from porches after ringing doorbells when someone from one of the homes opened fire.

The boy, struck in the back, was taken to a hospital with multiple wounds and died the next day.

What do we know about the investigation?

Officers questioned a man at the residence where the prank occurred but later released him. Detectives searched the house and removed several firearms, including rifles and handguns.

Houston Police Sgt. Michael Cass told KHOU the evidence so far does not indicate self-defense, noting the shooting happened away from the house. He said charges under review could include murder. Police are working with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and are reviewing neighborhood security video.

How have the community and police responded?

Neighbors called the death senseless, saying the children’s prank caused no real harm. One resident told KHOU it was heartbreaking, asking, “What harm could they have done? Playing with a doorbell?”

Cass urged families to remind children about risks, adding that parents should be more cautious given “the times we’re living in now.”

Have similar incidents happened before?

In Virginia earlier this year, a gunman killed an 18-year-old who was filming the game for TikTok, and prosecutors charged a 27-year-old man with second-degree murder. In California in 2023, a jury convicted a man of murdering three boys after he rammed a car when teenagers rang his doorbell.