The Harris County District Attorney's Office has reported the indictment of Gonzalo Leon Jr., a 42-year-old man accused of shooting and killing an 11-year-old boy, Julian Guzman, who was playing ding-dong ditch at a family birthday party on August 30. Click2Houston indicates that Leon faces charges of murder, injury to a child, and aggravated assault. The grand jury, however, indicted Leon on a first-degree murder charge and not capital murder.
Details of the incident were described by the boy's cousin in a statement obtained by Click2Houston. After becoming bored at a family member's birthday party, Guzman and his cousin rang doorbells and ran away as a joke. They knocked on Leon's door "several times," but during their final attempt, a man wearing all black, believed to be Leon, emerged from the home's gate armed with a pistol, firing once into the ground and then in the direction of the fleeing children, fatally striking Guzman in the back.
Leon's arrest came swiftly after the shooting as a SWAT team responded, and he surrendered after approximately 20 minutes of being called out using PA systems from vehicles, as per Click2Houston's reports. Searching Leon's home yielded about 20 firearms, including several "AR-style" rifles, shotguns, and pistols. He is currently held in Harris County Jail on a $1 million bond, with a request for bond reduction denied.
Witnesses of the earlier part of that fateful evening saw the group pranking neighbors, which prompted one individual, Allison Gatz, to warn them of potential danger. "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 told KHOU 11. The community’s response includes expressions of grief and concerns about prevention, with neighbor George Skinner highlighting the importance of educating young people: "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," Skinner also told KHOU 11.
As the case unfolds, questions regarding self-defense and the Castle Doctrine which allows individuals to use deadly force if they reasonably believe they are facing a threat, persist. However, Sgt. Michael Cass of HPD Homicide has already expressed doubts about a self-defense claim in this case. “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,” Sgt. Cass conveyed according to KHOU 11's interview.
