A Virginia teen is dead as the result of a prank gone horribly wrong.
Over the weekend, 18-year-old Massaponax High School senior Michael Bosworth Jr. and two friends gathered in Spotsylvania County to film TikTok content. According to the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, one teen involved in the hijinks told police he and the two others were recording ding-dong ditch pranks on Mckenzie Lane residents. You know, the age-old ringing-the-doorbell-and-then-running gag? We kind of thought that was a relic from the era where kids didn’t have smart phones and were always bored. But it’s apparently come back as a TikTok challenge.
Making the prank far less safe? These kids were ringing random doorbells at 3:00 in the morning! The Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office revealed in a statement:
“On May 3, 2025 at approximately 3:00 a.m., the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office received a call for a residential burglary in progress, where a resident had fired shots. Deputies responded to the area of Mckenzie Lane and discovered that two individuals had sustained gunshot wounds and a third individual was unharmed.”
Yeah. A homeowner supposedly thought he was being robbed and opened fire.
Bosworth was one of the two individuals who sustained gunshot wounds. He and the other victim were transported to a local hospital where he tragically succumbed to his injuries. The other victim was treated for “minor injuries and released,” according to the police department. So heartbreaking… All over a dumb TikTok prank.
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To make things even more heartbreaking, Bosworth’s death came just hours before his prom and just two weeks before graduation. How incredibly tragic… In the wake of his passing, Massaponax High School students gathered on the football field on Wednesday to release balloons in his honor. See HERE.
Now investigators are looking into the homeowner responsible for firing the rounds. According to Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office records, 27-year-old homeowner Tyler Chase Butler (above, right) was arrested on Tuesday in connection with Bosworth’s death. He has been charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding, and felony assault with firearm use in commission of felony — his first offense.
NBC4 Washington reported that Butler informed cops he believed the teens were attempting to break into his home and that’s why he fired the fatal rounds. He is currently being held in the Rappahannock Regional Jail on no bond.
While shooting some teens for playing a prank is horrifying… if this guy really thought his home was being broken into? That certainly muddies the waters. If this were Texas or Florida, we’d be shocked to see any charges at all tbh. What do YOU think? Should Butler be facing murder charges here?
[Images via Malinda Garcia/Instagram & Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office]
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