September 3, 2025 • 26 mins
Disturbing details were revealed in court today surrounding the murder of 11 year old Julian Guzman, the little boy gunned down for playing a childhood prank. Prosecutors say Julian was recording the prank on his cellphone, when 42 year old Army Vet Gonzalo Leon, Jr opened fire on him, his final moments all recorded on his phone.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, the folks. It is Wednesday, September third, and we
need to talk about what is happening in Houston. Welcome
to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. You and
I have gone back and forth about this story quite
a bit since we got a word over it over
the weekend. But an eleven year old boy shot and
(00:24):
killed after playing a prank door not what is it
called door?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's a ding dong dish, ding dong ditch.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Is the name of it. What do we call it?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
When we were kids, just pranking, like let's let's knock
on their door and run away and then watch them
come out and look for who it is and laugh. Yes,
I absolutely played this as a kid.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, So that is what an eleven year old boy
in Houston was doing, just like so many of us
were doing we were kids. And he ends up debt
because he was shot in the back as he was
running away from a house. And whoever was in that house.
A man has now been arrested, he has been charged,
and he is being held as we speak on a
one million dollar bond. He was in court today. We
(01:06):
want to get you caught up here, folks, but we
this does need to come robes with a warning and
alert to us all to parents in particular, that is
not a game anyway. You can get killed playing a game.
It's a prank. Kids shouldn't do it, don't get me wrong.
(01:28):
But that's not the point that nobody's suggesting that this
kid did anything wrong that night.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
He didn't do anything worthy of what happened to him, certainly,
and to actually get the details of how it all unfolded,
and it started at a birthday party and you got
two bored boys, cousins who kind of just sneaked out
from the party and decided to have some fun, ringing
doorbells and running away. To think that it ended with
(01:56):
eleven year old Julian Guzman shot multiple times in the back,
and it was all caught on camera.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So let's and folks, there is certain oh my god, right,
so many elements of the story that don't make any sense.
But where we are, and I want you to pick
up on the details of the night here in a second.
But to get you all caught up, today was the
day the suspect, which he's not necessarily denying that he
(02:29):
did the shooting. He says some contact is this context
is necessary. Gonzalo Leon Junior, forty two year old man
has now been charged with murder in the killing of
this eleven year old boy after a prank and he
chased the kid essentially down the street shoots him in
the back. Kid is dead now. He that happened on
(02:51):
last Saturday. Robes. He wasn't arrested until Tuesday. He has
made a court appearance now in which he is being
held on one million dollars bond. Now go back Robes
to Saturday night. And the first thing I thought, eleven
year old kid, eleven o'clock at night, why does no
one know where he is? That's the parent in me talking.
(03:11):
That wasn't me trying to say he got what he
should have expected, something bad. And no, that's not what
you're saying. That was my first thought. But now we
got more details about exactly what he was doing that night.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Right, he was at a family birthday party, and you know,
the adults were probably doing their thing and the kids
got bored, and so yeah, they kind of just took
off at night while everyone was preoccupied at this birthday party,
and they started doing the ringing of the doorbells and
running away. And when it came to the home of
Gonzalo Leon Junior. They had already done it twice. They
(03:45):
had pranked him twice, and it was the third time
he was waiting for them. According to Julian's cousin who
was there, who gave police a lot of the information,
who was actually able to give police the description that
led them to finally arresting Gonzalo Leon Junior. But he
said that this man was waiting for them in the
(04:07):
dark on the side of the house with a gun
in his hand and fired a warning shot into the ground.
First don't know why he didn't stop there, because the
boys took off running, and that is when he then
fired multiple shots that hit eleven year old Julian and
he fell to the ground, and his cousin described trying
(04:27):
to drag him away from where the bullets were. I mean,
it's just it's it's horrific. And here is the detail
that really is going to take your breath away. Julian
was videoing this the entire time on his cell phone
because this whole thing, these these pranks, it's it's big
on TikTok, and we've got plenty of other unfortunate incidents
(04:51):
to point to some of them deadly over the last
even the last few months, but certainly over the past
couple of years, where kids are filming their attempt at
pranking and thinking it's funny. So he has it all
on his cell phone from the moment he rang the
doorbell and ran to you hear the shots ringing out
(05:11):
to you. Actually hear him taking his final breaths.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I hope this guy pleads and that never has to
make it to the light of day, because they're going
to have to use that in a trial, are they not?
In open court?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's absolute evidence.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I hope that never makes it to the light of day.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Can you imagine as a juror having to watch that,
any human being having to watch that and hear that
and know what happened. It's unreal actually to think that
it's all captured.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So he has now been charged, yes, with murder, held
on one million dollar bond, which is what happened in
court today. But today is Robes and we got a
lot more detail and we got an idea of what
happened and where the prosecution wants to go with this,
and where even the defense wants to.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Go with it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And yes they do already have kind of a defense
forming Robes. It's hard to imagine. And if we go
back through these details in which I am struggling with,
and the new detail for me, at least I found
out today is that he was waiting in the shadows.
He was waiting. He was mad, well, he was mad.
(06:21):
But Robes, if he was waiting, didn't he see that
there was a child approaching his door?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Of course he had to have seen it as a child.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
How I am struggling to find any way, because they
said in court his defense attorney, there needs to be
everybody needs to not jump to conclusions. You need to
wait until you have a full context of the night's events.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Okay, they called it a tragic accident.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Robes, how in God's name now? Because I thought initially
when I first heard eleven year old shot prank, I say,
oh my god, some guy scared the hell out of
some guy. He went to the doors, just started firing
in a panic, right and hit the kid. That's what
that was the first thought. Wait, the kid was running
down the street, and now I hear the guy was
waiting in the wings. I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You can't justify that in any way and then the
autopsy clearly showed that the boy at the time of
when the bullet hit him, he was twenty feet away
from the gun. So he was far enough away from
this man. He was not a threat. He wasn't running
to him, he was running away from him, and he
was already twenty feet away, and he was far away
from this man's house. So there's really a hard like,
(07:33):
I don't know how you could defend any of his
actions based on any of the current laws that are
in place right now. We really did do a bit
of a deep dive on your standard ground law. Of course,
that is something that most likely will come up, and
there is actually something I went into the Texas dot
(07:53):
gov and looked up some of these possible scenarios and
it specific references trespassers. Okay, so you could say that
this eleven year old boy was a truspasser. So when
you enter onto or into someone's property, and even especially
if you've been told to leave by someone with authority.
(08:14):
So we don't know if he had yelled at them
earlier or no, there's no report that he did, but
still he's going on someone else's property. So okay, fine,
he was trespassing. But they say, if you grab your
firearm and you go outside and you fire a shot
at a trespasser or someone who is merely creeping around
your yard, you will likely find yourself facing a serious felony.
(08:36):
Texas law only permits the use of force, not deadly force.
And you certainly that's it's a gray area when you
just have someone who's trespassing. Oh, now, make that someone
an eleven year old boy.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Okay, But if that trespasser is running away from your
home and is twenty feet away from you, I thought
you were stopping me, like, oh, no.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You're right, No, no, no, you're right. I see, I hear
what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I just don't get it. And a lot of folks
from the South, you and I spend a lot of
time growing up in the South. Was in Atlanta, and
I'm a gun owner. I was a gun owner in
Atlanta at least, excuse me, let me make sure I
live in New York. Now I am no longer a
gun owner, but I was down there, and there we stand.
Your ground law and castle doctrine is what we were
(09:23):
talking about earlier. There are laws in certain states that
if someone is on your property. Uninvited, you don't have
to ask questions. You can shoot and kill that person.
The castle doctrine, they're uninvited in your home, on your property,
you have no duty to retreat in any way, form,
(09:44):
or fashion. That's one thing. The stand your ground law
is another. Yes, we listened to this rogues and we're thinking,
how could he possibly a eleven year old kid running away?
But if this comes up, remember George Zimmermann was found
not guilty in the death of Trayvon for second degree
murder based on stand your ground. Jordan Davis he was
(10:06):
killed by Michael Dunn. That case in Florida as well.
This wasn't that a home. They were at a gas station.
The kid was playing music louder than the dude liked,
and he shot and killed him. First trial hung jury
based on stand your ground. He was found guilty later.
But I'm saying I would never imagine in those two cases.
I could never imagine in this case. But I've been
(10:29):
wrong before.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
That's frightening. It's frightening because it will be hard for
this man to be able to justify that he didn't
know this was an unarmed child. It will be hard
for this man to somehow prove to a jury that
he felt threatened. Now, he's a father, he is a husband,
(10:51):
His wife and his toddler daughter were inside the home.
We know that much. And he really hasn't said much
at all. In fact, police said when they went to
talk to him that evening, because they actually went out
and talked to him and released him, he didn't answer
any of their questions. He didn't acknowledge anything, He didn't
claim to know anything. He completely closed his mouth, did
(11:13):
not say a word. And you know, anyone who is
potentially going to be charged with the crime, they'll tell
you that's the right thing to do, remember, protecting yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
We were covering the story and we said the kid
was shot on Saturday. Then we come to Sunday, then
we come to month. What the hell are they waiting
on they? Why hasn't anybody been arrested? Makes sense? Now?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, he said nothing. He wouldn't even acknowledge that he
knew what had happened. So they had to go through
other means, especially the cousin. They leaned on him heavily
to try and get the description to be able to
arrest him. But he has not spoken at all. About
what happened, how it happened, why it happened. He hasn't
shown remorse, He hasn't said a word.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
He said the cousin, can you imagine?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
No, And he said he wished he could have done more.
I mean, can you imagine he saw it all happen
and he's going to with that for the rest of
his life.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
They were just out and you know what, Robes I
have done and we need to and you know what,
We're going to get into this because warnings. Police are
putting out warnings, parents are putting out warnings across the
country to talk to your kids about this. Ding I
keep getting wrong, Ding Ding dong ditch ding dong ditch prank.
(12:26):
And I thought it was Look, I've done it before
as a kid. You run up, you hit the doorbell,
and you run away. Folks, that's not actually what a
lot of these kids are doing. It's much more aggressive,
severe and scary than what we used to do as kids.
(12:46):
So we want to tell you what that is about.
And we also want to go through a number of
recent incidents, and there are some people spending the rest
of their lives in prison without the possibility of parole
because they reacted after somebody pranked them, all right, folks,
(13:16):
Continuing now here on Amy and TJ, look where there
is a lot of focus on the eleven year old
boy who was shot and killed in Houston after the
Ding Dong ditch prank he played down there in Houston.
But Robes, this has been something that police have been
warning about and parents have been warning about for a
(13:36):
while because again you said you remember doing it as
a kid. Yeah, right, I remember doing it. Is you
go up and you ring the doorbell and you run away.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And at the end of it, absolutely like dare you
do it? No, you do it and go up and
you'd run and you'd run so fast and you go
hide in the woods or somewhere where you could see
the person come out and you'd laugh. That was it.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
That's it, okay, folks, That's not what they're necessarily doing
these days. They are and again you can see all
this stuff on Tick. There's a whole section curated just
for these videos and people are making them and what
they're doing they're not just doing it once or twice,
they're doing it three.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Times, banging loudly, and so.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
They're not just ringing the doorbell. Or knocking. They are
running and almost punching and kicking the doors. It would
scare the hell out of you if somebody did this
to you in the middle of the night. And in
some cases robes. The kids have been wearing damn.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Sche mask ski masks because it makes the video funnier
and it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Keeps you from being identified by all the damn ring cams.
So if somebody in a sche mask is outside my
home at one am, banging and kicking the door, why
am I supposed to take them as anything other than
a threat. That's the conversation you gotta have.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
With your kids, because they see it on TikTok. They
think it's fun, and everyone wants to one up, right,
So you want to make a better video, a more
interesting video, a funnier video, a cooler video, and so
everyone's trying to up the ante, and it makes things
all the more dangerous. And it really is frightening because
(15:16):
you can understand in some of those circumstances where the
homeowner yes would potentially have a violent reaction going into
self defense mode or defending your family mode, that actually
makes sense. That is not I mean, look, I'm sure, look, yeah,
I'm sure what happened in this most recent case. Obviously
(15:37):
he was waiting for him, so he knew they were kids,
but he was pissed, he was angry, He was pissed
off his kid. Maybe he woke his baby up, maybe
the baby's you know who knows. And sure, I'm sure
that was annoying, and that was irritating and he was angry.
But to have it rise to that level is in
that case just not at all warranty anyway out.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Of it and said he was an army vet.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We did not say that he's an army vet.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
And I didn't see you said they found a boatload
of guns.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Authority searched his home. They recovered twenty firearms, including and
this is the words they use, a handful of ar
style rifles, shotguns, and medium caliber pistols. So this is
a man who was heavily armed in his own home.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
But you would also assume, okay, he's an army vet.
He's trained, not just trained to use a weapon. I'm
saying he's trained to deal in stressful situations. Here, I
would argue, how you see, how you you how do
you calculate an eleven year old boy as a threat
to your home or your family, to the point you
(16:46):
have to shoot him as he's running. I don't He
had to have been out of his mind in a
rage like he had an out of body experienced rope.
I cannot understand how anything is going to explain this one.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, and I don't think it is explainable. But he's
not the only person who has reacted this way.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
And some of them rolled in some of these cases, folks,
and they have been deaths. There have been a number
of deaths in this country connected to ding I keep
messing up ding dong ditch. Yes, what did we call it?
Just a doorbell dash.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Or a doorbell dash whatever. I think we would just say,
let's go ring doorbells and run away. And we didn't
have a clever name. There were no hashtags back then,
and certainly we weren't videoing it, were posting it. You know,
there's none of that. It was just for the experience.
It wasn't to show it to anyone else or to
show off to anyone else. It was just because simply
we were bored.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
One of the most horrific ones wrote incidents, the one
in southern California. And this is one that many people cite.
But I thought this was going to be a case
of this is so unbelievable because he didn't just react
by shooting somebody outside of his door. He got this
random down.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
He chased them down. Yeah, twenty twenty southern California, he
killed three sixteen year old boys. He got into his
car and rammed them off the road, like rammed into them.
So he hit their vehicle twice. The speeds got up
to one hundred miles an hour because he was chasing
them and they were scared. H So, yes, three sixteen
(18:19):
year olds died. He was sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole over a damn doorbell prank.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yep, he is in life for the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, in prison for the rest of his life. And
just this past May, so May of this year, we
only have to go to Virginia, an eighteen year old
was shot and killed while recording same thing, a ding
dong ditch prank. Now, the twenty seven year old who
he was pranking is facing a second to green murder
charge for that. So you know, this is this is
(18:52):
something that has been deadly for multiple years. So in
just July of this year, so we're talking two months ago.
This is also in Texas. A man was charged after
he's shot at the car carrying the group of teenagers.
So they were taking off in the car, but he
shot at them and so he got three counts of
(19:14):
aggravated assault, thank goodness. But he could have killed them,
He could have shot them. He just happened to miss.
So he is still facing serious charges for that. But
he got so angry. Yeah, shot at them in their
car taking off.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
And if you don't want to know what we're talking
about and how some of these are aggressive. The police
in Arizona, Chandler, Arizona, when was it, I don't have
a note, but it was this summer. They warned people
about this by putting out videos that they had captured
of these kids doing it. And it gives you an
idea and how scary it could be for a homeowner
(19:51):
to have this happened at your front door. So if
you get a chance again Chandler, Arizona police, just look
that up. Google them and look up just video, door, dock, whatever,
and you'll see it and it'll give you an idea
of what we're talking.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
This one they said was called a door kicking challenge.
So it was this in the same vein. But yes,
this is when they're kicking the door. And they actually
showed some of these teens targeting the same home. One
home was hit eighteen times, so they go back to
the same people just to aggravate that torments.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah awful. And so what do you do and how
do you retaliate as a homeowner? You shoot eleven year
old boy?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
No? No, never, obviously No.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, I thought about this earlier. I wanted to discussion.
I don't know it, but it was my reaction in Atlanta,
my house in Atlanta. I was there by myself, and
one night I started hearing things knocking on the door.
You've been in the house there, you know, upset by
(20:54):
yourself and there it feelstle, scary, a little scary. Yeah, yeah,
but I heard things outside hitting my window. I thought
somebody was trying to get into the house or whatever.
You know what the first thing I did, I went
and grabbed my gun. I went and grabbed my six
hour nine milimeters pistol and got it in my hand,
and then you know, I went to the front room
to the library and started looking out trying to figure
(21:15):
out what was going on. And then when I finally
saw egg yolk going down my window, it was freaking Halloween.
Kids were playing some prank with some joke, some doings,
and they were just pelting me that night, thrown eggs. Okay, fine,
But I am saying in a moment like that, At
(21:36):
that moment that night, I had no idea that kids
were playing a prank. I wasn't about to go shoot
a kid, but I didn't know what was happening. And
my first mode of operation was to protection. There's a
threat outside, let me see what it is. So I
put myself in this context of that to how quickly
(21:57):
I did calm down. You figure out what's going on
in the moment. But if somebody's banging on your door
or whatever else, it's going to scare the hell out
of you. It just does. And I, how do you
why are we so desperate now? These kids for mindless entertainment?
(22:18):
It's one thing. So it's not even like you're you
got a joy out of watching it as a kid
doing it yourself.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
For now everybody else, this is about getting likes and
about getting reposted and about going viral. So that's all
you know, And that is where parents do need to
step in and talk to their kids. If you know
your kids are doing this, know what they're posting on
TikTok see what is you know what their pastimes are.
It seems like they're doing something harmless, but this could
actually and has proven to be deadly, and so it
(22:45):
it's just a warning to everyone involved that this is happening.
Parents need to talk to their kids, but homeowners need
to recognize also that it's possible and just you know,
you just the first reaction can't be violence. The prosecutor
today was pretty remarkable. He was, you know, he knows
(23:08):
he has a really a global audience at this point
because this has become a national story and a worldwide
story in this Houston area. And he said something, and
it's a quote worth repeating. He said, today one lost
a little boy before he even got to start his life,
(23:31):
and another has a father and husband facing life in
prison because of one angry act, just one bad decision,
one maybe even split second decision, and two families are
completely destroyed because of it.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
How old did you say? His kid was toddler?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
He has a toddler, toddler daughter. That's how it was
described yeah, two families completely devastated, will never be the
same again. So anyway, it's just it's an important story.
It's an important story to remember on all sides, and
what we can each do, and how we can talk
to our kids and remember that sometimes your kids don't
(24:17):
know they're eleven, I mean eleven. That's what kids do.
They're silly and they make bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And again, the time it takes to get your gun,
load it, cock it, walk outside, find a good hiding
place in the side of your house, and wait. That's
enough time to calm down. Right after two door knocks,
(24:48):
he figured something out. He figured something was up. If
a criminal is coming to kill you or coming to
harm your family or coming to rob you, they don't
knock on the door two times before they do it,
do they? No, he knows good and hell, well, what's
going on? I'm saying, I do not understand how all
(25:11):
of that he had, all of those moments and he's
still in a rage. Enough, he's eleven, and he's not
a towering eleven year old. He doesn't look like a
grown ass man. No, he does a baby.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
He does look like a baby.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
How robes do you get the gun loaded, walk outside,
find a hiding spot, and you're still pissed enough.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
That is what the prosecutor will likely be the jury
when this goes to trial. But we know that mister
Leon will be back in court mid October. I believe
and we will follow this case and hopefully there will
be no other cases like this. There have been far
too many just this summer alone, so we hope this
is the end of it, and maybe this unbelievably tragic
(25:59):
story will be a warning to so many others out
there to make sure this does not happen again. But
thank you for listening to us today. I made Robach
alongside T. J. Holmes. We do hope you have a
good rest of your day. Everybody,
Hey, the folks. It is Wednesday, September third, and we
need to talk about what is happening in Houston. Welcome
to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. You and
I have gone back and forth about this story quite
a bit since we got a word over it over
the weekend. But an eleven year old boy shot and
(00:24):
killed after playing a prank door not what is it
called door?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's a ding dong dish, ding dong ditch.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Is the name of it. What do we call it?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
When we were kids, just pranking, like let's let's knock
on their door and run away and then watch them
come out and look for who it is and laugh. Yes,
I absolutely played this as a kid.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, So that is what an eleven year old boy
in Houston was doing, just like so many of us
were doing we were kids. And he ends up debt
because he was shot in the back as he was
running away from a house. And whoever was in that house.
A man has now been arrested, he has been charged,
and he is being held as we speak on a
one million dollar bond. He was in court today. We
(01:06):
want to get you caught up here, folks, but we
this does need to come robes with a warning and
alert to us all to parents in particular, that is
not a game anyway. You can get killed playing a game.
It's a prank. Kids shouldn't do it, don't get me wrong.
(01:28):
But that's not the point that nobody's suggesting that this
kid did anything wrong that night.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
He didn't do anything worthy of what happened to him, certainly,
and to actually get the details of how it all unfolded,
and it started at a birthday party and you got
two bored boys, cousins who kind of just sneaked out
from the party and decided to have some fun, ringing
doorbells and running away. To think that it ended with
(01:56):
eleven year old Julian Guzman shot multiple times in the back,
and it was all caught on camera.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So let's and folks, there is certain oh my god, right,
so many elements of the story that don't make any sense.
But where we are, and I want you to pick
up on the details of the night here in a second.
But to get you all caught up, today was the
day the suspect, which he's not necessarily denying that he
(02:29):
did the shooting. He says some contact is this context
is necessary. Gonzalo Leon Junior, forty two year old man
has now been charged with murder in the killing of
this eleven year old boy after a prank and he
chased the kid essentially down the street shoots him in
the back. Kid is dead now. He that happened on
(02:51):
last Saturday. Robes. He wasn't arrested until Tuesday. He has
made a court appearance now in which he is being
held on one million dollars bond. Now go back Robes
to Saturday night. And the first thing I thought, eleven
year old kid, eleven o'clock at night, why does no
one know where he is? That's the parent in me talking.
(03:11):
That wasn't me trying to say he got what he
should have expected, something bad. And no, that's not what
you're saying. That was my first thought. But now we
got more details about exactly what he was doing that night.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Right, he was at a family birthday party, and you know,
the adults were probably doing their thing and the kids
got bored, and so yeah, they kind of just took
off at night while everyone was preoccupied at this birthday party,
and they started doing the ringing of the doorbells and
running away. And when it came to the home of
Gonzalo Leon Junior. They had already done it twice. They
(03:45):
had pranked him twice, and it was the third time
he was waiting for them. According to Julian's cousin who
was there, who gave police a lot of the information,
who was actually able to give police the description that
led them to finally arresting Gonzalo Leon Junior. But he
said that this man was waiting for them in the
(04:07):
dark on the side of the house with a gun
in his hand and fired a warning shot into the ground.
First don't know why he didn't stop there, because the
boys took off running, and that is when he then
fired multiple shots that hit eleven year old Julian and
he fell to the ground, and his cousin described trying
(04:27):
to drag him away from where the bullets were. I mean,
it's just it's it's horrific. And here is the detail
that really is going to take your breath away. Julian
was videoing this the entire time on his cell phone
because this whole thing, these these pranks, it's it's big
on TikTok, and we've got plenty of other unfortunate incidents
(04:51):
to point to some of them deadly over the last
even the last few months, but certainly over the past
couple of years, where kids are filming their attempt at
pranking and thinking it's funny. So he has it all
on his cell phone from the moment he rang the
doorbell and ran to you hear the shots ringing out
(05:11):
to you. Actually hear him taking his final breaths.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I hope this guy pleads and that never has to
make it to the light of day, because they're going
to have to use that in a trial, are they not?
In open court?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's absolute evidence.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I hope that never makes it to the light of day.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Can you imagine as a juror having to watch that,
any human being having to watch that and hear that
and know what happened. It's unreal actually to think that
it's all captured.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So he has now been charged, yes, with murder, held
on one million dollar bond, which is what happened in
court today. But today is Robes and we got a
lot more detail and we got an idea of what
happened and where the prosecution wants to go with this,
and where even the defense wants to.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Go with it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And yes they do already have kind of a defense
forming Robes. It's hard to imagine. And if we go
back through these details in which I am struggling with,
and the new detail for me, at least I found
out today is that he was waiting in the shadows.
He was waiting. He was mad, well, he was mad.
(06:21):
But Robes, if he was waiting, didn't he see that
there was a child approaching his door?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Of course he had to have seen it as a child.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
How I am struggling to find any way, because they
said in court his defense attorney, there needs to be
everybody needs to not jump to conclusions. You need to
wait until you have a full context of the night's events.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Okay, they called it a tragic accident.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Robes, how in God's name now? Because I thought initially
when I first heard eleven year old shot prank, I say,
oh my god, some guy scared the hell out of
some guy. He went to the doors, just started firing
in a panic, right and hit the kid. That's what
that was the first thought. Wait, the kid was running
down the street, and now I hear the guy was
waiting in the wings. I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You can't justify that in any way and then the
autopsy clearly showed that the boy at the time of
when the bullet hit him, he was twenty feet away
from the gun. So he was far enough away from
this man. He was not a threat. He wasn't running
to him, he was running away from him, and he
was already twenty feet away, and he was far away
from this man's house. So there's really a hard like,
(07:33):
I don't know how you could defend any of his
actions based on any of the current laws that are
in place right now. We really did do a bit
of a deep dive on your standard ground law. Of course,
that is something that most likely will come up, and
there is actually something I went into the Texas dot
(07:53):
gov and looked up some of these possible scenarios and
it specific references trespassers. Okay, so you could say that
this eleven year old boy was a truspasser. So when
you enter onto or into someone's property, and even especially
if you've been told to leave by someone with authority.
(08:14):
So we don't know if he had yelled at them
earlier or no, there's no report that he did, but
still he's going on someone else's property. So okay, fine,
he was trespassing. But they say, if you grab your
firearm and you go outside and you fire a shot
at a trespasser or someone who is merely creeping around
your yard, you will likely find yourself facing a serious felony.
(08:36):
Texas law only permits the use of force, not deadly force.
And you certainly that's it's a gray area when you
just have someone who's trespassing. Oh, now, make that someone
an eleven year old boy.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Okay, But if that trespasser is running away from your
home and is twenty feet away from you, I thought
you were stopping me, like, oh, no.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You're right, No, no, no, you're right. I see, I hear
what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I just don't get it. And a lot of folks
from the South, you and I spend a lot of
time growing up in the South. Was in Atlanta, and
I'm a gun owner. I was a gun owner in
Atlanta at least, excuse me, let me make sure I
live in New York. Now I am no longer a
gun owner, but I was down there, and there we stand.
Your ground law and castle doctrine is what we were
(09:23):
talking about earlier. There are laws in certain states that
if someone is on your property. Uninvited, you don't have
to ask questions. You can shoot and kill that person.
The castle doctrine, they're uninvited in your home, on your property,
you have no duty to retreat in any way, form,
(09:44):
or fashion. That's one thing. The stand your ground law
is another. Yes, we listened to this rogues and we're thinking,
how could he possibly a eleven year old kid running away?
But if this comes up, remember George Zimmermann was found
not guilty in the death of Trayvon for second degree
murder based on stand your ground. Jordan Davis he was
(10:06):
killed by Michael Dunn. That case in Florida as well.
This wasn't that a home. They were at a gas station.
The kid was playing music louder than the dude liked,
and he shot and killed him. First trial hung jury
based on stand your ground. He was found guilty later.
But I'm saying I would never imagine in those two cases.
I could never imagine in this case. But I've been
(10:29):
wrong before.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
That's frightening. It's frightening because it will be hard for
this man to be able to justify that he didn't
know this was an unarmed child. It will be hard
for this man to somehow prove to a jury that
he felt threatened. Now, he's a father, he is a husband,
(10:51):
His wife and his toddler daughter were inside the home.
We know that much. And he really hasn't said much
at all. In fact, police said when they went to
talk to him that evening, because they actually went out
and talked to him and released him, he didn't answer
any of their questions. He didn't acknowledge anything, He didn't
claim to know anything. He completely closed his mouth, did
(11:13):
not say a word. And you know, anyone who is
potentially going to be charged with the crime, they'll tell
you that's the right thing to do, remember, protecting yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
We were covering the story and we said the kid
was shot on Saturday. Then we come to Sunday, then
we come to month. What the hell are they waiting
on they? Why hasn't anybody been arrested? Makes sense? Now?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, he said nothing. He wouldn't even acknowledge that he
knew what had happened. So they had to go through
other means, especially the cousin. They leaned on him heavily
to try and get the description to be able to
arrest him. But he has not spoken at all. About
what happened, how it happened, why it happened. He hasn't
shown remorse, He hasn't said a word.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
He said the cousin, can you imagine?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
No, And he said he wished he could have done more.
I mean, can you imagine he saw it all happen
and he's going to with that for the rest of
his life.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
They were just out and you know what, Robes I
have done and we need to and you know what,
We're going to get into this because warnings. Police are
putting out warnings, parents are putting out warnings across the
country to talk to your kids about this. Ding I
keep getting wrong, Ding Ding dong ditch ding dong ditch prank.
(12:26):
And I thought it was Look, I've done it before
as a kid. You run up, you hit the doorbell,
and you run away. Folks, that's not actually what a
lot of these kids are doing. It's much more aggressive,
severe and scary than what we used to do as kids.
(12:46):
So we want to tell you what that is about.
And we also want to go through a number of
recent incidents, and there are some people spending the rest
of their lives in prison without the possibility of parole
because they reacted after somebody pranked them, all right, folks,
(13:16):
Continuing now here on Amy and TJ, look where there
is a lot of focus on the eleven year old
boy who was shot and killed in Houston after the
Ding Dong ditch prank he played down there in Houston.
But Robes, this has been something that police have been
warning about and parents have been warning about for a
(13:36):
while because again you said you remember doing it as
a kid. Yeah, right, I remember doing it. Is you
go up and you ring the doorbell and you run away.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And at the end of it, absolutely like dare you
do it? No, you do it and go up and
you'd run and you'd run so fast and you go
hide in the woods or somewhere where you could see
the person come out and you'd laugh. That was it.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
That's it, okay, folks, That's not what they're necessarily doing
these days. They are and again you can see all
this stuff on Tick. There's a whole section curated just
for these videos and people are making them and what
they're doing they're not just doing it once or twice,
they're doing it three.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Times, banging loudly, and so.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
They're not just ringing the doorbell. Or knocking. They are
running and almost punching and kicking the doors. It would
scare the hell out of you if somebody did this
to you in the middle of the night. And in
some cases robes. The kids have been wearing damn.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Sche mask ski masks because it makes the video funnier
and it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Keeps you from being identified by all the damn ring cams.
So if somebody in a sche mask is outside my
home at one am, banging and kicking the door, why
am I supposed to take them as anything other than
a threat. That's the conversation you gotta have.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
With your kids, because they see it on TikTok. They
think it's fun, and everyone wants to one up, right,
So you want to make a better video, a more
interesting video, a funnier video, a cooler video, and so
everyone's trying to up the ante, and it makes things
all the more dangerous. And it really is frightening because
(15:16):
you can understand in some of those circumstances where the
homeowner yes would potentially have a violent reaction going into
self defense mode or defending your family mode, that actually
makes sense. That is not I mean, look, I'm sure, look, yeah,
I'm sure what happened in this most recent case. Obviously
(15:37):
he was waiting for him, so he knew they were kids,
but he was pissed, he was angry, He was pissed
off his kid. Maybe he woke his baby up, maybe
the baby's you know who knows. And sure, I'm sure
that was annoying, and that was irritating and he was angry.
But to have it rise to that level is in
that case just not at all warranty anyway out.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Of it and said he was an army vet.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We did not say that he's an army vet.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
And I didn't see you said they found a boatload
of guns.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Authority searched his home. They recovered twenty firearms, including and
this is the words they use, a handful of ar
style rifles, shotguns, and medium caliber pistols. So this is
a man who was heavily armed in his own home.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
But you would also assume, okay, he's an army vet.
He's trained, not just trained to use a weapon. I'm
saying he's trained to deal in stressful situations. Here, I
would argue, how you see, how you you how do
you calculate an eleven year old boy as a threat
to your home or your family, to the point you
(16:46):
have to shoot him as he's running. I don't He
had to have been out of his mind in a
rage like he had an out of body experienced rope.
I cannot understand how anything is going to explain this one.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, and I don't think it is explainable. But he's
not the only person who has reacted this way.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
And some of them rolled in some of these cases, folks,
and they have been deaths. There have been a number
of deaths in this country connected to ding I keep
messing up ding dong ditch. Yes, what did we call it?
Just a doorbell dash.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Or a doorbell dash whatever. I think we would just say,
let's go ring doorbells and run away. And we didn't
have a clever name. There were no hashtags back then,
and certainly we weren't videoing it, were posting it. You know,
there's none of that. It was just for the experience.
It wasn't to show it to anyone else or to
show off to anyone else. It was just because simply
we were bored.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
One of the most horrific ones wrote incidents, the one
in southern California. And this is one that many people cite.
But I thought this was going to be a case
of this is so unbelievable because he didn't just react
by shooting somebody outside of his door. He got this
random down.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
He chased them down. Yeah, twenty twenty southern California, he
killed three sixteen year old boys. He got into his
car and rammed them off the road, like rammed into them.
So he hit their vehicle twice. The speeds got up
to one hundred miles an hour because he was chasing
them and they were scared. H So, yes, three sixteen
(18:19):
year olds died. He was sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole over a damn doorbell prank.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yep, he is in life for the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, in prison for the rest of his life. And
just this past May, so May of this year, we
only have to go to Virginia, an eighteen year old
was shot and killed while recording same thing, a ding
dong ditch prank. Now, the twenty seven year old who
he was pranking is facing a second to green murder
charge for that. So you know, this is this is
(18:52):
something that has been deadly for multiple years. So in
just July of this year, so we're talking two months ago.
This is also in Texas. A man was charged after
he's shot at the car carrying the group of teenagers.
So they were taking off in the car, but he
shot at them and so he got three counts of
(19:14):
aggravated assault, thank goodness. But he could have killed them,
He could have shot them. He just happened to miss.
So he is still facing serious charges for that. But
he got so angry. Yeah, shot at them in their
car taking off.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
And if you don't want to know what we're talking
about and how some of these are aggressive. The police
in Arizona, Chandler, Arizona, when was it, I don't have
a note, but it was this summer. They warned people
about this by putting out videos that they had captured
of these kids doing it. And it gives you an
idea and how scary it could be for a homeowner
(19:51):
to have this happened at your front door. So if
you get a chance again Chandler, Arizona police, just look
that up. Google them and look up just video, door, dock, whatever,
and you'll see it and it'll give you an idea
of what we're talking.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
This one they said was called a door kicking challenge.
So it was this in the same vein. But yes,
this is when they're kicking the door. And they actually
showed some of these teens targeting the same home. One
home was hit eighteen times, so they go back to
the same people just to aggravate that torments.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah awful. And so what do you do and how
do you retaliate as a homeowner? You shoot eleven year
old boy?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
No? No, never, obviously No.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, I thought about this earlier. I wanted to discussion.
I don't know it, but it was my reaction in Atlanta,
my house in Atlanta. I was there by myself, and
one night I started hearing things knocking on the door.
You've been in the house there, you know, upset by
(20:54):
yourself and there it feelstle, scary, a little scary. Yeah, yeah,
but I heard things outside hitting my window. I thought
somebody was trying to get into the house or whatever.
You know what the first thing I did, I went
and grabbed my gun. I went and grabbed my six
hour nine milimeters pistol and got it in my hand,
and then you know, I went to the front room
to the library and started looking out trying to figure
(21:15):
out what was going on. And then when I finally
saw egg yolk going down my window, it was freaking Halloween.
Kids were playing some prank with some joke, some doings,
and they were just pelting me that night, thrown eggs. Okay, fine,
But I am saying in a moment like that, At
(21:36):
that moment that night, I had no idea that kids
were playing a prank. I wasn't about to go shoot
a kid, but I didn't know what was happening. And
my first mode of operation was to protection. There's a
threat outside, let me see what it is. So I
put myself in this context of that to how quickly
(21:57):
I did calm down. You figure out what's going on
in the moment. But if somebody's banging on your door
or whatever else, it's going to scare the hell out
of you. It just does. And I, how do you
why are we so desperate now? These kids for mindless entertainment?
(22:18):
It's one thing. So it's not even like you're you
got a joy out of watching it as a kid
doing it yourself.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
For now everybody else, this is about getting likes and
about getting reposted and about going viral. So that's all
you know, And that is where parents do need to
step in and talk to their kids. If you know
your kids are doing this, know what they're posting on
TikTok see what is you know what their pastimes are.
It seems like they're doing something harmless, but this could
actually and has proven to be deadly, and so it
(22:45):
it's just a warning to everyone involved that this is happening.
Parents need to talk to their kids, but homeowners need
to recognize also that it's possible and just you know,
you just the first reaction can't be violence. The prosecutor
today was pretty remarkable. He was, you know, he knows
(23:08):
he has a really a global audience at this point
because this has become a national story and a worldwide
story in this Houston area. And he said something, and
it's a quote worth repeating. He said, today one lost
a little boy before he even got to start his life,
(23:31):
and another has a father and husband facing life in
prison because of one angry act, just one bad decision,
one maybe even split second decision, and two families are
completely destroyed because of it.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
How old did you say? His kid was toddler?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
He has a toddler, toddler daughter. That's how it was
described yeah, two families completely devastated, will never be the
same again. So anyway, it's just it's an important story.
It's an important story to remember on all sides, and
what we can each do, and how we can talk
to our kids and remember that sometimes your kids don't
(24:17):
know they're eleven, I mean eleven. That's what kids do.
They're silly and they make bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And again, the time it takes to get your gun,
load it, cock it, walk outside, find a good hiding
place in the side of your house, and wait. That's
enough time to calm down. Right after two door knocks,
(24:48):
he figured something out. He figured something was up. If
a criminal is coming to kill you or coming to
harm your family or coming to rob you, they don't
knock on the door two times before they do it,
do they? No, he knows good and hell, well, what's
going on? I'm saying, I do not understand how all
(25:11):
of that he had, all of those moments and he's
still in a rage. Enough, he's eleven, and he's not
a towering eleven year old. He doesn't look like a
grown ass man. No, he does a baby.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
He does look like a baby.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
How robes do you get the gun loaded, walk outside,
find a hiding spot, and you're still pissed enough.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
That is what the prosecutor will likely be the jury
when this goes to trial. But we know that mister
Leon will be back in court mid October. I believe
and we will follow this case and hopefully there will
be no other cases like this. There have been far
too many just this summer alone, so we hope this
is the end of it, and maybe this unbelievably tragic
(25:59):
story will be a warning to so many others out
there to make sure this does not happen again. But
thank you for listening to us today. I made Robach
alongside T. J. Holmes. We do hope you have a
good rest of your day. Everybody,
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