MURRYSVILLE, Pa. — Murrysville police said a game involving squirt guns, known as “Assassins,” has been going on for years. But this year, the department has received an influx of calls.
”I think the issue is, it’s taking place in public where these kids see each other is where they engage in the game,” Detective Sergeant Dan Cox said.
The harmless game involving squirt guns has saturated players from surrounding Murrysville neighborhoods for weeks.
”Yearly, they chase each other around Murrysville, trying to eliminate the other players with squirt guns so we’re familiar with it from years past, it just seems that this year we’ve been getting a little bit more calls from it,” Cox said.
The game involves kids ambushing and eliminating other players with squirt guns.
Over the last week, Murrysville police said they have received an influx of calls about disturbances of teens taking to the game to the next level.
”Most of the time I’m seeing, they’re in cars. So you have a group in one car, a group in another car, and they see each other in public, they’re going to almost corner the other group in and engage in their game wherever they’re at,” Cox explained.
A Facebook post by Murrysville detailing what potential citations could come out of the game received a mixed response from the community.
”Not a lot people know this game exists. So, somebody looks out their window and sees these kids engaging in this game. They call it in as a disturbance-style call to the police department. They see kids running around the street, car doors open,” Cox said.
While police said they don’t want to deter kids from going outside to play, they want to remind them to be respectful and to not put themselves or anyone else in harm’s way.
”We want the kids to know how to do it safely, but we also want the community to know these kids are out there doing this because a lot of people don’t know. So, if they see it in the future they’ll know what’s going on,” Cox said.
Officers said they have not cited anyone and do not plan to, but they want kids, parents and neighbors to be aware of what’s going on to prevent anything bad from happening.
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