{"id":404051,"date":"2026-08-12T00:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404051\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T00:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:58:13","slug":"self-proclaimed-internet-pranksters-accused-of-terroristic-threats-in-river-oaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404051\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-proclaimed internet pranksters accused of terroristic threats in River Oaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; A trio of Houstonians who have been posting stunts on social media for years is facing new criminal charges after they allegedly entered the River Oaks Tower on Kirby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Edward Gonzales is accused of entering River Oaks Tower last week with Antonio Aguirre and Roland Zepeda. The three men are charged with making a terroristic threat, according to officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The incident brought back memories of Gonzalez&#8217;s earlier run-ins with the law. In 2016, Gonzales, seen in video wearing a white shirt, made headlines after he and his cousin Zepeda were filmed playing basketball on a highway entrance ramp. They also faced theft charges that year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Years later, prosecutors allege Gonzales and the two other men took their stunts into an office building, where they posed as delivery workers and confronted tenants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Videos of the trio hitting a number of local office buildings can be seen on several social media accounts they run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Attorney Chris Morrell said this time, it was no different. Morrell said he was in his office when he heard someone yelling loudly in the lobby last Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;We don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s happening, but they&#8217;re yelling at the top of their lungs,&#8221; Morrell said. &#8220;So immediately, we&#8217;re put on edge. What is happening outside, we have no idea.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Morrell said the men eventually entered his office and got in his face. He said he did not know whether they were armed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;I&#8217;m face to face with two of the guys. It is very tense, and I don&#8217;t know whether they&#8217;re armed; they have weapons,&#8221; Morrell said. &#8220;They&#8217;re clearly not who they said they are, and I&#8217;m trying to get them out of the office because they&#8217;re clearly intimidating me and my staff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Morrell said the men claimed they were there to make a delivery but began asking for personal information and appeared intent on provoking a reaction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The confrontation eventually prompted the Houston Police Department&#8217;s SWAT team to respond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Morrell said he believes the situation could have ended much differently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;It could have very easily escalated to someone getting beaten up very badly or having a weapon and getting killed,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was a second from escalating.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Gonzales has continued to attract attention online since the 2016 incident, but the latest case could have more serious consequences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">ABC13 tried to contact Gonzales; he picked up the phone but hung up a few moments later. His attorney did not return requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">For Morrell, the incident was a reminder of how quickly an alleged social media stunt can turn dangerous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">&#8220;Luckily, it didn&#8217;t end in violence,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; A trio of Houstonians who have been posting stunts on social media for years&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[141551,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-404051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-141551","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}