It was only a squirt gun.
WISC-TV in Madison reports Verona Police mobilized all available officers, and sought assistance from the Dane County Sheriff’s Department for a call that came in sounding like an active shooter. It turned out to be a high schooler playing the “senior assassins” game.
These games are popular at high schools in Southeast Wisconsin as well. Some call it “Paranoia.” It’s typically played with nerf guns or squirt guns. High school seniors form teams, and compete, trying to get their opponents out of the game by shooting them. The games tend to be meticulously managed through a student organizer on social media, and include rules of engagement such as, “Sporting events are okay as long as it’s not athletes. Athletes are fair game once they’re in their car after.” That’s just one of an extensive list of rules listed on the Instagram page “greendale24paranoia.” Another includes, “Abducting of pets is prohibited, family is discouraged.”
Fun as it all sounds, reports of reckless driving, trespassing, and overzealous competition create problems teens. In some cases, they prompt calls to police, as was the case in Verona.
In an interview with WISC-TV, Verona Police Lt. Dustin Fehrmann described the call that came to dispatchers earlier this week. “A tall, skinny individual who was wearing a full face ski mask and carrying a black handgun.” Particularly since Verona is just miles from Mt. Horeb this triggered a large and immediate response. Authorities in Mt. Horeb just last week, shot and killed a teenager in an active shooter situation at the middle school.
According to the WISC-TV report, the call turned out to be for a participant in the “senior assassins” game, and not someone with a firearm. Nonetheless, police believe the caller did the right thing by reporting it.
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