‘Arrogant assault and battery:’ Safety expert warns of ‘Senior Assassin Challenge’ charges

Nicholas Brooks
·2 min read

A trend on social media is raising serious concerns, especially in St. Johns and Duval counties. The trend has prompted young people to shoot innocent bystanders with pellet guns.

It’s called the Senior Assassin Challenge. It’s where people use airsoft or pellet guns to shoot random bystanders and post it on social media.

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Action News first told you of a local preschool teacher who was shot 30 times with these pellets in a Walmart parking lot.

Read: ‘I felt fear:’ Homeless Jacksonville preschool teacher shot with pellet gun while asleep in car

“When you shoot something with velocity and mass you are subject to hurt them,” Action News Jax Law and Safety Expert Dale Carson said.

Dale Carson has years of law enforcement experience and tells Action News Jax this prank can lead to serious consequences.

“This is arrogant assault and battery, which is in some cases of a serious injury,” Carson said. “It’s punishable up to 30 years in custody.”

Carson added this prank can lead to the victims possibly responding in a violent way to protect themselves.

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“In the state of Florida, that threat is sufficient to allow me to exercise deadly force against you and shoot you, which would be a horrible tragedy,” Carson said. “If I were able to kill someone who was just pranking me.”

Arturo Umel, a man who lives in Jacksonville’s Hannah Stables neighborhood where one of these shootings occurred, said he will defend his family by any means if they’re attacked in this way.

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“If they do it in the daytime, then they should be aware of me because I have a high-powered gun,” Umel said.

This has been a growing problem in local areas. We found four reports this month alone in St. Johns County detailing calls of suspects shooting bystanders with pellet guns or Orbeez guns.

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