A Virginia man has been charged with second-degree homicide after fatally capturing a youngster who was filming a prank for TikTok referred to as “ding dong ditch” with two associates round 3 a.m. on Saturday, in keeping with courtroom data and native authorities.
The Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Workplace responded to a report of a resident firing photographs throughout a housebreaking, and located two youngsters with gunshot wounds, the workplace said in an announcement. One of many youngsters, Michael Bosworth Jr., 18, later died of his wounds. The second particular person was handled for minor accidents, and a 3rd particular person within the group was unhurt, the sheriff’s workplace stated. The 2 associates with Mr. Bosworth have been each underneath 18.
The youngsters had been within the neighborhood to make a TikTok video, considered one of them instructed investigators in an affidavit filed in Spotsylvania Circuit Court docket. A “ding dong ditch” prank includes ringing doorbells or knocking on the entrance doorways of homes earlier than operating away, and has turn into well-liked fodder for social media movies.
“The juvenile suggested it’s one thing that individuals are doing to placed on TikTok,” the affidavit stated.
The group had knocked on a couple of doorways within the space, one of many youngsters instructed a detective, including that they weren’t aware of the neighborhood. They have been operating away from a residence after they have been shot, in keeping with the affidavit. At the very least one video exhibiting the youngsters doing the prank was nonetheless on one of many associates’ telephones, the affidavit stated.
The authorities arrested Tyler Chase Butler, 27, of Spotsylvania County, on Tuesday on costs of second-degree homicide, malicious wounding and use of a firearm within the fee of a felony, the sheriff’s workplace stated. He was being held at Rappahannock Regional Jail on no bond, it stated.
Mr. Bosworth was a senior at Massaponax Excessive Faculty in Fredericksburg, Va. The highschool, which was set to carry its commencement for seniors on Might 13, despatched a message to the college group that counselors could be obtainable to assist grieving college students.
A spokesman for the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Workplace, reached by telephone, declined to remark additional. A lawyer for Mr. Butler didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. G. Ryan Mehaffey, the Commonwealth’s Legal professional for Spotsylvania County, declined to remark however stated a preliminary listening to had been scheduled for June 18.
This type of prank has led to tragedy previously. In 2020, a person in California crashed right into a automotive of six youngsters, killing three of them, after they played a similar prank on him. He was sentenced to life in jail in 2023.
On Tuesday, a gaggle of scholars gathered on the soccer discipline at Massaponax Excessive Faculty to recollect their classmate, in keeping with a video shared by an Instagram account run by college students from the college. They shared reminiscences about Mr. Bosworth and wrote messages on balloons earlier than releasing them at sundown.
Jonathan Wolfe and Michael Levenson contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.
