A Virginia man has been charged with second-degree homicide after fatally taking pictures a youngster who was filming a prank for TikTok often called “ding dong ditch” with two mates round 3 a.m. on Saturday, in response to courtroom information and native authorities.
The Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Workplace responded to a report of a resident firing pictures 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 individual was handled for minor accidents, and a 3rd individual within the group was unhurt, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned. The 2 mates with Mr. Bosworth have been each beneath 18.
The youngsters had been within the neighborhood to make a TikTok video, certainly one of them informed investigators in an affidavit filed in Spotsylvania Circuit Court docket. A “ding dong ditch” prank entails ringing doorbells or knocking on the entrance doorways of homes earlier than operating away, and has grow to be standard fodder for social media movies.
“The juvenile suggested it’s one thing that individuals are doing to placed on TikTok,” the affidavit mentioned.
The group had knocked on a number of doorways within the space, one of many youngsters informed a detective, including that they weren’t acquainted with the neighborhood. They have been operating away from a residence once they have been shot, in response to the affidavit. At the least one video exhibiting the youngsters doing the prank was nonetheless on one of many mates’ telephones, the affidavit mentioned.
The authorities arrested Tyler Chase Butler, 27, of Spotsylvania County, on Tuesday on prices of second-degree homicide, malicious wounding and use of a firearm within the fee of a felony, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned. He was being held at Rappahannock Regional Jail on no bond, it mentioned.
Mr. Bosworth was a senior at Massaponax Excessive College in Fredericksburg, Va. The highschool, which was set to carry its commencement for seniors on Could 13, despatched a message to the varsity group that counselors can 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 Lawyer for Spotsylvania County, declined to remark however mentioned a preliminary listening to had been scheduled for June 18.
This model 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 bunch of scholars gathered on the soccer subject at Massaponax Excessive College to recollect their classmate, in response to a video shared by an Instagram account run by college students from the varsity. 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.
