According to court records and local authorities, Virginia was charged with the murder of the second degree of murder after the fatal shooting of a teenager, who filmed a joke for Tiktok known as “Dong Ditch” with two friends around 3 hours.
Spotsylvania Sheriffs responded to reports of resident missiles during burglary and found two teenagers with gunshot wounds, office said in a statement. One of the teenagers, Michael Bosworth Jr., 18, later died of his wounds. The other person was treated for minor injuries and the third party in the group was unharmed, the Sheriff’s office said. Two friends with Mr. Bosworth were both under the age of 18.
Teenagers were in the neighborhood to make a video tiktok, one of them told investigators in an affidavit declared in the Spotsylvania District Court. Prank “Ding Dong Ditch” includes a bell ringing or knocking on the front door of houses before escaping and becoming a popular feed for social media videos.
“The juvenile advises that it is something people do to wear tiktok,” said the honorary statement.
The group knocked on several doors in this area, one of the teenagers said a detective and added that they were not familiar about the surroundings. According to the honorary statement, they fled before the residence. At least one video showing teenagers who make a joke were still on one of the friends’ phones, said the honorary statement.
The authorities arrested Tyler Chase Butler, 27 years, from Stotsylvania County, on Tuesday for accusation of the second degree murder, harmful injuries and the use of a firearm in the Crime Commission, the Sheriff’s office said. He was held in Rappahannock Regional Jail for any bond, he said.
Mr. Bosworth was a senior on Massaponax High School in Fredericksburg, VA. The secondary school, which was ready to keep its graduation for the elderly on May 13, sent a report to the school community that advisors would be available to help sad students.
The spokesman of the Sheriff Office Spotsylvania, achieved by telephone, refused to comment on. The lawyer for Mr. Butler did not respond immediately to the request for comment. G. Ryan Mehaffey, a Commonwealth lawyer for Spotsylvania County, refused to comment, but said that on June 18th was planned preliminary hearing.
This style of prank in the past led to tragedy. In 2020, a man in California crashed into a car of six teenagers and killed three of them after playing a similar joke. In 2023 he was sentenced to life in prison.
On Tuesday, a group of students gathered on a football field at Massaponax High School to remember their classmate, according to video Shared by Instagram account that runs students from school. They shared memories of Mr. Bosworth and wrote news about balloons before they released them at the west.
Jonathan Wolf and Michael Levenson contributed news. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
