BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — An early morning police call is prompting a larger warning to parents about a game involving fake weapons.
The Brooklyn Park Police Department put out a community alert after officers responded to reports of a person dressed in camouflage seen walking through a neighborhood early Tuesday morning with what appeared to be a long gun. Officers later found the person in question and determined the gun was not real, and the individual was participating in a game known as "senior assassin." According to a Community Alert posted on the BPPD website, the game "involves high school-aged students in our community engaging in a game where they tag each other using water projectile-firing guns."
The viral challenge has sparked similar warnings in other communities across the country in recent days, including Chicago and Orlando.
BPPD urged parents to talk to children about the dangers of such a game, especially involving look-alike guns.
"The presence of individuals carrying firearm look-alikes, also known as facsimile firearms, within Brooklyn Park is a crime," BPPD said in its post.
Eric Henefield is a father who lives near that neighborhood.
"I think it’s too much of an opportunity for things to go wrong," he said. "That person is lucky they didn’t get hurt."
Henefield said he is already monitoring social media with his middle-schooler.
"She’s not on TikTok for that exact reason," he said.
Cory Johnson is another dad who lives in the area and said he noticed police cars drive by his window Tuesday morning.
"There’s a few kids coming out of the backyard and they were wearing camouflage and had guns with an orange tip on them, like they were doing some kind of prank," he said. "It's not a good thing people could get hurt."
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