In many cases, students are dressed in dark, hooded clothing to imitate a real assassination, which has alarmed community members and bystanders alike. Officers in nearby suburbs have responded to 911 calls made by residents concerned about people wearing masks or hoodies lurking around homes or suspicious vehicles driving around neighborhoods.
“The concept is not against the law or a local ordinance. We ask everyone to play safely, use common sense and recognize how players’ actions may be perceived by members of the community,” Arlington Heights police wrote in their community alert.
“The unintentional result of participants running throughout the community with a water gun, some often resembling a look-alike firearm, could have deadly consequences.”
In Spanish Fort, Alabama, police chief John Barber recounted a senior assassin game that started as a traffic stop and ended in a high speed police chase last year.
“We don’t know what that’s about so we try to make a traffic stop and we end up in a car chase last year. Turns out it was seniors trying to do the senior assassin game, ended up in a car chase, bailing out of the vehicle,” he said.
“Again, we don’t know what we’re dealing with until we finally took them into custody and we go, wow, look where this went from a harmless game to a car chase to running from the police for what?”
Parents are urged to take action, while community members across the nation have been encouraged to help end the senior assassin “game.”
