A Kentucky man has been charged with attempted murder after he shot a 12-year-old boy in the back for ringing his doorbell during a game of Ding Dong Ditch.
Jason Eberle of Louisville, was playing the game, which involves someone ringing a doorbell and running away, on Monday night with friends. The New York Post reports that after the kids rang 56-year-old Michael Bishop's bell he came out onto his porch armed with a shotgun and
Bishop was arrested and has been charged with attempted murder. The Louisville Courier Journal reports that he was released Tuesday night after posting $10,000 bail.
Eberle was hit in the shoulder and the back and suffered two collapsed lungs in the incident. He is currently being treated in hospital where his condition is described as "improving".
Eberle's uncle, Bart McMahon, told Kentucky's WLKY "It's outrageous, it's intolerable and that's why we have prisons for people who can't confine their behavior within the bounds of law."
"If he was so bothered, the best thing for him to do would have been to call the parents or yell at the kids. [The shooting was] not a self-defense maneuver; that is nothing but a flat-out assault on an innocent child."
Neighbor Wayne McDowell, speaking to WHAS11 described the horrific state of the boy's injuries.
"[Eberle] probably had 200 [shotgun pellet wounds]. Looked like he took 75 percent of the blast and his head was bleeding to where they had to hold towels on it. It wasn't good, just make you sick."