A man has been convicted of murdering three 16-year-olds after, a court was told, a teenager knocked on his door and exposed his buttocks at him as a prank.

Anurag Chandra deliberately rammed a car the boys were travelling in before the driver lost control and slammed into a tree in Temescal Valley, Los Angeles, on 19 January 2020.

Chandra fled the scene after the crash.

Three 16-year-olds – Daniel Hawkins of Corona; Drake Ruiz of Corona; and Jacob Ivascu of Riverside – died in the collision, according to the Riverside County coroner’s office.

They were travelling in the same Toyota Prius as Sergio Campusano, 18, and Joshua Hawkins and Joshua Ivascu, both 13.

The friends had dared one boy to either jump into a pool at night or play “ding dong ditch”, a game commonly called knock down Ginger in England but that has many other names in the UK and around the world.

Chandra, who didn’t know the teens, testified at trial that one of the boys rang his doorbell and exposed his buttocks before running away, according to The Riverside Press-Enterprise.

He testified that he followed the car because he feared for his family’s safety and wanted to express his anger. He said he was “extremely, extremely mad” from the prank.

Chandra also testified that he drank 12 beers in the hours before the crash, the newspaper reported.

He said he did not plan to crash into the Prius and testified that he did not stop after rear-ending the car because he did not realise anyone had been injured – even though he admitted under cross-examination that he had been driving 99mph (159kph) before the collision.

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Chandra was convicted in a Riverside County courtroom of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.

“The murder of these young men was a horrendous and senseless tragedy for our community. I thank the jury for their verdict. This is an important step toward justice,” county district attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement.

Chandra’s lawyer, David Wohl, did not reply to a request for comment on Friday.

Chandra was already facing criminal charges in connection with alleged domestic violence in 2020 when the killings occurred.

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