A late-night round of the high school game "Senior Assassin" in Kenner veered into real-world danger on Saturday when a homeowner's adult son fired several warning shots, police said. Six juveniles took off running, no one was hurt, and officers later tracked down all six and booked them on criminal mischief charges.
According to the Kenner Police Department, the chaos started around 11:30 p.m. on April 4 in the 4100 block of West Louisiana State Drive. Investigators said some of the teens, dressed in hoodies and face coverings, were hiding under and behind vehicles as they tried to "tag" other players. The homeowner's son, seeing people lurking outside at that hour, fired four to five shots into the yard as a warning, and the group bolted before officers arrived, WWL-TV reported.
How the Kenner scare unfolded
Investigators said the homeowner's son aimed the warning shots into the grass in his driveway, as confused neighbors called police amid the noise and commotion. Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley told WWL-TV the situation "could have ended in a tragedy" and questioned why anyone would be running through a neighborhood at 11:30 p.m. with covered faces and objects that could easily be mistaken for pistols.
Why police are warning parents
Police departments across the country have been sounding the alarm about "Senior Assassin" and similar games, noting that toy guns and gel blasters can look alarmingly real in the dark. The Los Angeles Times, in a recent roundup of law enforcement warnings, highlighted concerns that students using dark, realistic replicas instead of brightly colored toy gear risk sparking exactly the kind of panicked response seen in Kenner.
Those concerns are not hypothetical. In Nassau County in February 2025, an early-morning encounter ended when an off-duty Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent shot a student who was playing the game. The student was expected to recover, authorities told News4JAX. In another incident, police in Groton, Massachusetts, told Boston.com that a realistic squirt gun used during a "Senior Assassin" event triggered multiple 911 calls and a heavy police response.
What Kenner police say next
In the wake of the West Louisiana State Drive scare, Kenner officers urged families to sit down with teens and spell out the risks that come with nighttime pranks, especially those that involve hiding on private property or carrying toy weapons that could pass for real guns. The department warned that even a joke, if misread in the wrong place at the wrong time, can escalate in seconds into a confrontation that ends with injuries or criminal charges instead of bragging rights.
