An eighteen-year-old high school senior playing a harmless water gun game spent three nights in jail facing felony charges that could destroy his college scholarship, all because online retailers now sell toy guns so realistic that trained police officers cannot tell them apart from deadly weapons.
Story Snapshot
- Adrian Williams arrested at gunpoint by over a dozen officers after 911 calls reported an armed person at a Planet Fitness parking lot in Portage, Indiana
- Williams was participating in Senior Assassin, a traditional high school game using water guns purchased from TikTok Shop
- Police held Williams for three nights on felony intimidation charges even after confirming the weapon was a water gun
- The teen now faces potential loss of his college scholarship and a criminal record that could follow him for life
When Toys Become Threats
Adrian Williams thought he was doing what countless high school seniors before him had done: participating in Senior Assassin, a rite-of-passage game where students playfully eliminate each other with water guns until one winner remains. The tradition has been around for decades, with students stalking their classmates around neighborhoods armed with nothing more dangerous than plastic Super Soakers. But Williams made one critical mistake. He purchased his water gun from TikTok Shop, where modern toy weapons are designed with tactical realism that even law enforcement professionals cannot distinguish from actual firearms at a glance.
Multiple 911 callers spotted Williams in the Planet Fitness parking lot and reported seeing someone with a gun. Their concern was understandable. The water gun Williams carried bore an uncanny resemblance to real firearms, complete with tactical styling that mimicked genuine weapons. When Portage police responded, they did not send one or two patrol cars. They deployed more than a dozen officers who surrounded the teen and pointed four to five actual guns at him. Williams later told reporters he felt closer to death than ever before in his life.
The TikTok Shop Problem Nobody Wants to Address
The fundamental issue here extends far beyond one teenager’s misfortune. Online platforms like TikTok Shop have become purveyors of increasingly realistic toy weapons with virtually no safeguards, warnings, or age restrictions adequate to the danger these products create. Parents and teens scroll through their feeds, see what appears to be a cool water gun for a harmless game, click purchase, and receive a package containing something that looks identical to weapons carried by military personnel and law enforcement. Police acknowledged that Williams’ water gun looked remarkably similar to actual firearms.
This reality creates an impossible situation for everyone involved. Citizens who spot someone carrying what appears to be a gun have a civic duty to report potential threats. Police officers responding to armed-person calls cannot afford to assume the best-case scenario when lives may hang in the balance. The Portage Police Department stated they must treat every weapon as real until confirmed otherwise. That protocol is not excessive; it is survival. But it also means that teenagers playing traditional games with products legally purchased online can suddenly find themselves staring down the barrels of multiple police firearms.
Three Days Behind Bars for Playing a Game
The arrest itself, while terrifying for Williams, makes tactical sense given what responding officers believed they were facing. What strains credulity is what happened next. After police confirmed the weapon was indeed a water gun and no actual threat existed, they did not release Williams with a stern warning or even a misdemeanor citation. They charged him with felony intimidation and kept him locked up for three nights. His mother, Tiffany May, questioned why her son remained in custody after officers verified the gun posed no danger whatsoever.
Williams now faces consequences that could derail his entire future. A felony conviction does not simply disappear. It follows you on job applications, housing applications, professional licensing, and countless other situations where background checks apply. May expressed deep concern that the charges could cost her son his college scholarship, transforming a few hours of play into a life-altering catastrophe. Williams has a court date scheduled for April 22, where prosecutors will decide whether an eighteen-year-old deserves a permanent felony record for playing the same game generations of students have played before him.
Where Accountability Should Actually Land
Common sense suggests prosecutorial discretion should apply here. Williams was not threatening anyone. He was not committing a crime. He was playing a known, traditional high school game with a legally purchased product. The realistic appearance of the water gun created the problem, not criminal intent. Charging him with felony intimidation when he had no intention to intimidate anyone represents a failure to distinguish between malicious actors and innocent people caught in circumstances beyond their reasonable control. Prosecutors have the authority to decline charges or reduce them to citations that acknowledge the seriousness of the situation without destroying a young person’s future.
The retailers selling these hyper-realistic toy weapons also bear responsibility that they have systemically avoided. TikTok Shop and similar platforms profit from selling products they know look indistinguishable from real firearms. They could implement age verification, prominent warnings, or design requirements that make toy guns obviously toys through bright colors or clear markings. Instead, they prioritize sales and engagement while leaving teenagers, police officers, and communities to navigate the dangerous consequences of products that serve no legitimate purpose looking so realistic.
Sources:
Teen charged with felony, spends 3 nights in jail after playing senior assassin game – CBS Chicago
