Pennsylvania Cops Warn Students Playing ‘Assassin’ Game to Be Careful

Long before he was Goose on Top Gun or a doctor on ER, Anthony Edwards was in this movie called Gotcha. A college kid who was really good at this assassin game with plastic dart guns in college goes to Eastern Europe, gets roped into some spy stuff, then uses his talents back on campus to take down the bad guys. It’s a goofy premise, but I loved it back in the day.

So when my oldest told me he was playing a similar game with his fraternity brothers, only with water guns, I thought it was pretty cool.

However, as the game has spread, police in one Pennsylvania town are warning students to be careful while playing it.

Abington Township Police are asking high school students to be mindful of their neighbors this spring while participating in Senior Assassin, a trendy game of water gun “tag” that’s played every year in communities around the country.

The tradition among graduating seniors can take different forms, but the basic premise involves students prowling around town with water guns to win an elimination-style contest. It usually unfolds over a period of weeks. Students work their way through a series of targets — spraying their fellow classmates — in a quest to be the last one standing without getting soaked.

Senior Assassin has been around for decades. It rebounded in popularity in the 2010s as students took the game into the age of social media, posting videos of their pursuits online. Usually, the competition is all in good fun, but it has led to a number of incidents locally and nationally over the years. Last year, an 18-year-old in Florida was shot in the arm by an off-duty police officer who mistook three students for home invaders when he spotted them outside his property around 6 a.m.

“We want the community to be, not alarmed, but informed — just in case,” Abington Township Police Detective Sgt. Greg Urban said Friday.

And honestly, this is something everyone needs to be aware of, because kids trying to soak a classmate are going to act just like someone who is sneaking around trying to be up to no good. One is good, clean fun, and the other is a predator looking to potentially hurt someone.

Kids who play these games, and I get the appeal, need to be careful and understand that there’s a limit to what should be considered acceptable. There’s a time and a place for this kind of thing, and lurking in the bushes in the wee hours of the morning like a burglar might is not a wise decision.

On the flip side, people should be aware if this game is being played in their community, so they can at least be aware that someone in the bushes might not be looking to actually hurt anyone.

If everyone exercises just a smidge more caution, maybe we can avoid bad things happening. 

That said, there’s a limit to how much caution anyone should exercise if they believe their life is in danger. Kids, don’t be stupid and act like you’ve got a real weapon, don’t point it at anyone other than the others playing the game, and for the love of all that is good in the world, stop pretending you’re a Navy SEAL trying to take down Bin Laden. That’s a good way to put yourself in a position you really don’t want to be in.

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