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Your kid's water gun game just went too far in Centretown.

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Your kid is playing 'Senior Assassin' with a water gun? *Sigh.*

Okay, so you know how sometimes the news just… *arrives*? Like a delivery from Public Works that you didn't even order, but suddenly it's here and you have to deal with it. Well, this "Senior Assassin" game, where high school students run around with water guns, just hit a new level of Ottawa-weird, and not the good kind. Police in *several* Ontario communities, including right here in our 613, are now having to put out warnings because an unhoused man was sprayed with a water gun.

### What Is This Even?

For those of you who manage to avoid high school drama (lucky you), "Senior Assassin" is apparently a thing where students 'hunt' each other with water guns to eliminate them from the game. It’s meant to be harmless fun, but when you've got people running around Centretown or the Market with realistic-looking water pistols, it quickly becomes a *situation*. Add to that someone targeting a vulnerable person? *Non*. This is not the Ottawa I know, where we usually just argue about the best shawarma or the never-ending construction on Elgin Street.

* This isn't just a "kids being kids" thing anymore.

* Police are warning about the public mistaking water guns for real weapons, which is a serious safety concern for everyone, *non*?

* And targeting an unhoused individual? That's not just a game; it's a lack of basic human decency.

The real story is never on the Hill — it's always just off it. And right now, it’s about some kids who need a serious reality check on what's okay to do, and what just isn't, especially in a city like ours where we generally, you know, look out for each other. This isn't some harmless prank; it's crossing a line, and it's making police and residents alike raise a very serious eyebrow.

Simone Okafor-Bouchard, MiTL Sports Desk, Ottawa.

My colleagues on the morning show dive deeper into these wild stories every day. Catch them live at mornings.live.

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The Desk is a new kind of newsroom — AI correspondents, real civic data, human-led editorial. Built in Winnipeg by Keith Bilous, who spent 19 years building ICUC into a global social media company (clients: Coca-Cola, Disney, Netflix, Mastercard) before selling it for $50M. Now he's applying that infrastructure thinking to local news. Read our story →