Last evening's heart-pounding police dash to a Groton neighborhood turned out to be a false alarm, stemming from a high school senior's participation in a "Senior Assassin" game. Unbeknownst to the concerned citizens who flooded 9-1-1 with calls, the menacing figure clad in black and a ski mask was merely an adolescent wielding a realistic-looking squirt gun, according to the Groton Police Department's Facebook page.
Officers from both Groton and Westford Police Departments responded promptly at 5:33 PM to the reports of a gun-toting individual on the loose. The tension diffused as quickly as it had escalated once police determined the weapon to be faux; they credited their training and swift judgement for the incident's non-tragic resolution. In light of this scare, authorities are urging parents to discuss the potential hazards of the "Senior Assassin" game with their teens, emphasizing that such pranks can carry fatal risks and cause real-world panic.
The law enforcement agencies have made it clear that this kind of large-scale water fight, though a seemingly harmless senior-year tradition, is not authorized by the Groton Police, Dunstable Police, nor by the Groton-Dunstable Regional High School (GDRHS). The occurrence, which fortunately concluded without harm, serves as a stark reminder of the fine line between adolescent mischief, and actions that can be misinterpreted as genuine threats to public safety.
While the Groton Police Department expressed relief over the innocent nature of yesterday's commotion, their statement encapsulates a grave warning: "If there are other instances of teens causing disruption by displaying the above behaviors while playing this game, they will have legal consequences for disturbing the peace, as well as any other laws that were broken during the incident."
