Police dispatch recordings in Montgomery County capture call after call from people worried that a water pellet gun used in a game popular with high school seniors is a real gun.
“We're getting a call from a dad of a student at Watkins Mill High School who just picked up his daughter. He said he saw five subjects fighting in the parking lot. He said one possibly had a gun,” someone says on one call.
"I'm on the scene in the parking lot. Also, I know a lot of kids have been playing that senior assassin game all week at the school,” someone replies.
On another call, officers were sent on a priority call to a McDonald’s on Darnestown Road.
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"There's teenagers in the parking lot. They're shooting projectiles that hit the caller in the back four or five minutes ago. Unknown weapon,” someone says.
"This is the game the kids are playing with the Orbeez Gelbees. Is this still a priority?" someone replies.
The call referenced a type of recreational gun that fires pellets with enough force to dent a car. Some stores can’t keep the popular products in stock.
They’re the weapon of choice in what’s called the senior assassin game. It’s meant to be a tradition for seniors in which two or more high schoolers use the pellet guns to “eliminate” their targets, usually off school grounds.
Many of the pellet guns come in bright colors. But some look more like real guns.
Montgomery County police say they’re worried someone could get seriously hurt, or worse.
“Some of them look like a real handgun. A lot of them look like a toy gun. But in today’s world, we have gun manufacturers customizing guns so they don’t necessarily look like a traditional gun either,” Cmdr. Eric Stancliff said. “The fear is we’re going to have a bad incident where someone gets shot as a result of kids playing a game.”
Some high school principals have sent home emails asking parents to talk to their kids about the game and whether the fun is worth the risk.
