A grand jury has indicted Gonzalo Leon Jr., 42, on three charges after seeing evidence in the case of an 11-year-old who was shot while playing a prank.
HOUSTON — A grand jury has indicted a man in connection with the deadly shooting of an 11-year-old boy who was playing ding-dong ditch at a family birthday party in August, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
The suspect in the case, Gonzalo Leon Jr., 42, was indicted on a murder charge, injury to a child and aggravated assault. Leon was taken into custody the morning of September 5 and booked into the Harris County Jail. He is being held on a $1 million bond and is due in court next month.
The victim was Julian Guzman, 11. Doctors pronounced him dead on Aug. 31 after he was taken to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
What happened
The shooting unfolded around 11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, on Racine Street near Mimbrough and Fidelity streets, just east of the East Loop, according to the Houston Police Department.
The boy and a group of kids had been ringing doorbells when they knocked on the door of a home. Witnesses told police that someone came outside and opened fire as the children ran away.
“A witness says someone ran out of that house and was shooting at the kids running down the street, and unfortunately, sadly enough, one of the boys, who was 11 years old, was shot in the back,” HPD Homicide Detective Sgt. Michael Cass said.
Guzman was rushed to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and later died.
Witness accounts
Allison Gatz told KHOU 11 she saw the group of kids pranking her neighbors earlier that day and tried to warn them.
“I warned them that they shouldn’t be doing what they were doing, that it was dangerous, and they had two minutes to go and leave the property or I would contact the police,” Gatz said. “They knew that they were doing something wrong.”
Neighbor George Skinner said the tragedy could have been prevented.
“It’s an innocent life taken. He could have avoided it. The parents maybe could have avoided it,” Skinner said. “You got to teach them and let them know what’s right and what’s wrong, and it’s wrong to knock on somebody’s door playing a prank.”
Legal questions
Sgt. Cass has already said the circumstances do not appear to support a self-defense claim.
“In my opinion, it does not look like any type of self-defense. It wasn’t close to the house, so it’ll more than likely be a murder charge,” Cass said.
Texas law includes the Castle Doctrine, which allows homeowners to use deadly force if they reasonably believe they are facing a threat.
“From what we know, it is difficult to imagine a homeowner reasonably believing children playing a centuries-old prank posed a legitimate threat,” KHOU 11 legal analyst Carmen Roe said.
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