Twice in the past week, members of the Collingwood and Blue Mountains Detachment of the OPP have responded to reports of young people in vehicles observed with firearms. Police have determined that both incidents were the result of youths and young adults playing a game called “Senior Assassin” with water guns.
The game consists of a group of high school seniors, who are all assigned targets anonymously. The point of the game is for an assassin to eliminate their target with a water gun before each round ends.
On April 24th, Collingwood and Blue Mountains OPP received a complaint that several teens in a white vehicle had attended an address on Kirby Ave in Collingwood and were trying to get to another teen, who had taken refuge in a residence. Police were advised that one of the individuals was carrying a handgun. Multiple police units converged on the area and located the vehicle and suspects, taking them into custody before determining that the firearm was actually a water gun, and the teens were playing Senior Assassin.
On April 28th, Collingwood and Blue Mountains OPP responded to a complaint that several teens were parked in a vehicle on Bush Street in Collingwood and acting suspiciously in front of a residence. It was believed that they had firearms with them in the vehicle. Multiple officers arrived and the teens were detained while the officers conducted their investigation. It was determined that the teens were using water guns and playing the Senior Assassin game.
Law enforcement in the U.S. have also issued warnings about the game having deadly consequences due to using water guns resembling a real firearm. The Arlington Heights Police Department went so far as to issue a statement saying,
“The Police Department has received calls regarding associated activity. One such call resulted in a significant police response based on a homeowner reporting a ‘man with a gun’ running through their residential yard. Please do not assume any similar suspicious activity observed is related to this game. Any unusual activity should be reported immediately by calling 9-1-1.”
Also in the U.S., in Gurnee, a suburb north of Chicago, a group of high school students entered a restaurant wearing ski masks and holding water guns that police said resembled firearms. They told a local news outlet, “An adult, who was a concealed carry holder, in the restaurant mistook the situation for a genuine threat, and the situation could have escalated quickly. The gravity of the situation cannot be emphasized enough; it had the potential to lead to serious consequences.”
A Seniors Assassin Instagram account, which has over 1,000 followers, features videos and photos of young people carrying and concealing water guns while playing the game. In some cases, it would be difficult to differentiate between a water gun and a real firearm from a distance.
The Collingwood and Blue Mountains OPP warns the young people who are playing this game to ensure that they are not using water-guns that can easily be confused with a “real” firearm, stick to the brightly coloured plastic type; don’t linger around other people’s homes or trespass on their property; and don’t wear face masks that cover the face. It is important for young people to understand how their actions could look/be interpreted by a member of the public, who is unfamiliar with the game that they are playing.
