In the incident, a high school game known as "senior assassin" ended with a father shooting and paralyzing an 18-year-old student in Goddard, Kansas.
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| Anakin Zehring |
The Incident
The incident happened on May 11, 2024, in the parking lot of a Walmart in Goddard. Anakin Zehring, a high school senior, and his friends were playing a popular game among seniors known as "senior assassin."
The game makes students "assassinating" each other using water or gel blasters, with the objective being to "eliminate" as many players as possible without getting hit themselves.
On the day of the incident, Zehring and his friends shot a gel blaster at a group of teenagers, which included a girl and her boyfriend. Feeling threatened, the girl called her father, 47-year-old Ruben Contreras, to report the incident. Contreras arrived at the scene, confronted Zehring, and subsequently shot him, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
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| Anakin Zehring was shot in Kansas on May 11, 2024. Image By: KSN TV/YouTube |
In the affidavit, Zehring told the police that he believed Contreras was simply a pedestrian walking through the parking lot and had only stopped for the crosswalk.
"Zehring said his ears starting ringing and realized he had been shot. Zehring says he turned to the west and realized he couldn’t feel his legs,” a detective wrote. “Zehring stated he hit a pole in the parking lot to get the Spark to stop because he didn’t want to hit anyone in the roadway."
The Goddard High School graduate also told police he wasn’t the one using the gel blaster, a statement that was contradicted when one of the passengers told authorities Zehring was the shooter. The single shot inflicted severe injuries on Zehring, as it "punctured his duodenum (upper part of the small intestine) and damaged his spinal cord, causing loss of sensation from the waist down,” according to his parents on a GoFundMe page.
"The bullet caused significant damage to his body, necessitating the fusion of his L1, L2, and L3 spinal bones,” Kenly Zehring and Jeremy Zehring added.
Initially, the teen was hospitalized at St. Francis in Wichita in critical condition before being transferred to the Madonna Rehabilitation Facility in Omaha, Nebraska. Contreras was arrested on May 15 and charged with attempted first-degree murder, as reported by KSN.
He was booked into the Sedgwick County Detention Facility on $300,000 bail and is currently out on bond.
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| Ruben Marcus Contreras Image By: KSN TV/YouTube |
Contreras was charged with attempted first-degree murder and is currently awaiting his next court date on June 24. This incident has highlighted not only the potential for violence in games involving toy guns but also the severe consequences of overreactions by adults.
The shooting in Goddard is a reminder of how easily a harmless game can escalate into a life-altering event. The use of toy guns in public spaces, especially in a society where gun violence is a significant concern, can lead to tragic misunderstandings. In this case, a father’s decision to bring a real gun into the situation resulted in a devastating outcome for a young student and his family.
This incident also raises important questions about parental responsibility and the appropriate response to perceived threats. Contreras's decision to confront and shoot Zehring instead of contacting authorities or de-escalating the situation has resulted in criminal charges and a lifetime of consequences for all involved.
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