Livermore Police Discouraging High School Seniors From Playing 'Assassin' Game

LIVERMORE (CBS SF) -- Livermore police were asking high school students to refrain from playing a game police say has led to injuries, property damage and the unnecessary expending of police resources.

Students playing the "Assassin" game buy in to a pool and are given the name of another student they have to "assassinate" with mock weapons. The students then stalk each other outside of school grounds, including hiding in bushes outside each other's homes waiting for them to come outside, police said.

The game goes on until only one student remains and wins a cash prize, according to police.

The students started playing Monday, school officials told police, and already there has been a report of a student being knocked unconscious by hitting his head while trying to duck into his car to escape and another student who crashed into a house while driving away from her "assassin."

Granada High School Principal Philomena Rambo is worried because the game, although it can't be played at school, has few rules and almost no boundaries.

"Kids are crouching behind bushes. A neighbor sees somebody in the dark with what looks like a gun, they have to assume it's a gun. And I'm worried kids are going to get hurt because of what it appears they are doing instead of what they really are doing," the principal told KPIX 5.

Police also said that they have received numerous calls about armed suspects, reckless driving, suspicious persons and prowlers that turned out to be related to the game, wasting police resources.

Last year, Livermore police officers pulled over a car of seniors after reports of people with guns. "Pulled them over, did what we call a felony car stop, which means we point our real guns at them, order them out of the car and we found out it was just the game of Assassin," Officer Traci Rebiejo recalled.

In another instance, Rebiejo said, "I made a traffic stop on a young lady that was driving double the speed limit in a school zone and she said her assassinator was following her. There was no car behind her, she was just absolutely paranoid."

Assassin is not a school-endorsed event and police in a Facebook post Tuesday pleaded with students to refrain from playing it.

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