A Virginia man has been charged with second diploma homicide after fatally taking pictures a young person who was filming a prank for TikTok referred to as “ding dong ditch” with two buddies round 3 a.m. on Saturday, in keeping with court docket information and native authorities.
The Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Workplace responded to a reportof a resident firing photographs throughout a housebreaking, and located two youngsters with gunshot wounds, the workplace said in a press release. 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 buddies with Mr. Bosworth have been each beneath 18.
The youngsters had been within the neighborhood to make a TikTok video, one in every of them instructed investigators in an affidavit filed in Spotsylvania Circuit Courtroom. A “ding dong ditch” prank includes ringing doorbells or knocking on the entrance doorways of homes earlier than operating away, and has change into widespread 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 number of doorways within the space, one of many youngsters instructed a detective, including that they weren’t accustomed to the neighborhood. They have been operating away from a residence once they have been shot, in keeping with the affidavit. No less than one video displaying the youngsters doing the prank was nonetheless on one of many buddies’ telephones, the affidavit stated.
The authorities arrested Tyler Chase Butler, 27, of Spotsylvania County, on Tuesday on expenses of second diploma 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 College in Fredericksburg, Va. The highschool, which was set to carry its commencement for seniors on Might 13, despatched a message to the varsity neighborhood that counselors could be obtainable to assist grieving college students.
A spokesman for the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Workplace, reached by cellphone, declined to remark additional. A lawyer for Mr. Butler didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. G. Ryan Mehaffey, the Commonwealth’s Lawyer for Spotsylvania County, declined to remark however stated a preliminary listening to had been scheduled for June 18.
This model of prank has led to tragedy prior to now. In 2020, a person in California crashed right into a automobile 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 bunch of scholars gathered on the soccer discipline at Massaponax Excessive College to recollect their classmate, in keeping with a video shared by an Instagram account run by college students from the varsity. They shared recollections 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.
