Suspect spotted with long gun in Brooklyn Park was teen playing ‘Senior Assassin’

A suspect carrying a long gun through yards in a Brooklyn Park neighborhood Tuesday morning turned out to be a high school student playing a game called “Senior Assassin.”

Police responded to calls about a person wearing camouflage attire carrying a weapon at about 6:45 a.m. in the area of the 10500 block of N. Upton Circle. Police launched a drone and found the person matching the description and detained the individual, Brooklyn Park Police said in a community alert.

Officers learned the suspect was playing a popular game in which groups of students separate into teams and are challenged to “shoot” a randomly assigned “target” on the opposing team using a toy water gun. When their mission is carried out, the shooter posts their “hit” on social media, often on TikTok.

Students with the most “hits” without getting tagged win the tournament-style game.

But as attacks play out, bystanders unaware of the game have been calling the police. In Illinois, one group of students wearing ski masks and carrying replica guns stormed a restaurant where their opponents were dining and attempted to spray them with water.

An adult in the restaurant who was a concealed carry holder mistook the situation as a genuine threat and “the situation could have escalated quickly,” the Gurnee Police Department said in a Facebook posting.

“The gravity of the situation cannot be emphasized enough; it had the potential to lead to serious consequences,” the department’s posting continued.

A similar game called “Nerf Wars” grabbed headlines in 2015 when two Lakeville South High School students were killed in a car crash while playing the game.

In its alert, Brooklyn Park police urged parents to have conversations with their teens about the dangers associated with playing the “assassin” game.

The alert also stated that it is illegal to carry firearm look-alikes in Brooklyn Park.