A high school senior in Indiana was charged with felony intimidation after his use of a toy water gun in a “senior assassins” game was mistaken for an active threat.
The incident occurred on Friday at a Planet Fitness on U.S. Highway 6 in Portage and sparked a large police response.
According to the Portage Police Department, multiple 911 callers reported an individual armed with a firearm featuring an extended magazine. Because local schools were in session at the time, authorities treated the reports as an active threat, ABC News reported.
Thirteen police officers — including ten on-duty Portage officers, two off-duty officers and a Porter County sheriff’s deputy — responded to the scene where they located 18-year-old Adrian Williams inside a vehicle.
Officers found a toy water gun in the passenger compartment of the car. Although the toy is marketed for children as young as three, police said its appearance was realistic enough to trigger a high-risk law enforcement response.
“This emergency response put the officers and the community at unnecessary risk as well as delayed responses to three other calls for service occurring simultaneously in the city,” police said in a statement.
As he was being detained, Williams, a student at Portage High School, told investigators he had been playing the game and waiting for his target outside the gym.
“We understand that this game has been played by high school seniors in our area for a few years, and this appears to have become a tradition," police said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we have previously had to respond to reports of reckless driving, road rage and carjacking.”
Williams’ mother described her son as an honor roll student and a football player. She said St. Xavier University, where Williams has a full scholarship, confirmed Tuesday that his financial aid is not in jeopardy, ABC News reported.
One commenter on the police department’s social media statement said they knew Williams personally and had worked with him.
“He was definitely a hardworking young man, and he was very kind,” the commenter wrote. “It kinda breaks my heart to see all these people who are slandering an 18-year-old kid for a game that is well known in the area among high schoolers. Was the water gun suspicious, yes. But after determining it was a water gun he shouldn’t have been charged.”
Williams is scheduled to appear in court on April 22.
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