ST. LOUIS — Multiple gel blaster toy guns were seized from teenagers who were shooting them at each other in downtown St. Louis Monday night.
This is the latest incident involving toy guns 5 On Your Side has been covering in the St. Louis area recently.
At about 9:15 p.m. Monday, MetroLink alerted police to an incident involving multiple teens at 6th and Locust Streets. Police said two groups of teens were firing gel blasters at each other.
Police officers found three 16-year-olds and one 19-year-old with gel blasters.
Sgt. Charles Wall with the St. Louis Police Department said there's a possibility the four individuals are linked to other recent crimes where people were shot at with toy guns.
"They may be involved in other similar incidents that involve, like we were talking about before, the third-party individuals that are just walking down the street when they're indiscriminately targeted," Wall said.
A 17-year-old had extra ammo for the gel blasters. A 16-year-old also had Roman candle fireworks.
Police said one of the 16-year-olds was taken to Juvenile Detention for a probation violation. The other minors were released to their parents or guardians, and the 19-year-old was released.
Wall said this trend needs to stop: "There's potentially some type of social media challenge or TikTok challenge related to kids and these types of toys that ultimately can be somewhat used as weapons. And there are just some inherent dangers with this type of activity. You know, a lot of these items that some people may indicate are just toys; they're made to replicate firearms, and some of them very much look like firearms."
There have been other incidents as well, including a teen who opened fire with a gel bead gun at the AMC Theater in Creve Coeur.
"The young person went into a movie theater and began using one of these devices against unsuspecting people. And again, there it's even potentially more dangerous of a situation where it's a dark room, and a person in the heat of the moment may not immediately recognize the sound of that toy or device as being something other than gunfire. Thankfully, nobody in that theater was armed and returned fire, but it can have very, real serious, potentially deadly consequences," Wall said.
Also, police in Florissant are investigating recent incidents of juveniles using gel blasters known as "Orbeez Guns" in public areas.
Florissant's Police Chief Tim Fagan said, "We ask parents to educate their children about the potential risks and legal implications of using these devices irresponsibly."
Wall thinks the conversations should be had as well.
"I think any parent would be devastated if you knew the toy that they got their child was misperceived to be some deadly weapon. And somebody responded with deadly force, and they now are dealing with some family tragedy because of that. I think it's important to have those conversations," Wall said.
Police ask anyone with information or who may have been a victim of a gel blaster assault to call St. Louis Metropolitan Police at 314-444-2500.