Middletown boy shot by toy gun on the way home from school
By Olivia Schueller
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MIDDLETOWN, Connecticut (WFSB) — A 10-year-old boy in Middletown was shot in the face with a gel pellet in broad daylight.
It happened Tuesday on the child’s walk home from the school bus in the area of Grand and Pearl Street.
Kids were walking down the sidewalk when a car pulled up.
A parent said two young men inside the car fired a toy gun with gel-like pellets.
A 10-year-old boy was hit in his face, just missing his eye.
Police watched the area as kids got off the bus on Thursday.
Eyewitness News spoke to a man whose son was walking home with the child who was hit.
Chris Willis said his son described the suspects as two teens with dreadlocks.
After the incident, Willis said the two men in the car circled back around.
“They came by and laughed at him as if it’s like a joke. So that was really upsetting to me,” Willis said.
Willis said lately he feels uneasy letting his son walk home from the bus in this area. As a parent he calls it both alarming and upsetting.
“A lot of kids are acting a little more violent and everyone’s blaming it on society,” Willis said. “It’s how your raise your children.”
This incident could be linked to a trending TikTok trend known as the “Orbeez challenge”. That’s where kids shoot a gun filled with gel balls.
“This fits right into the pattern of social media where outrage, gains 10 times the attention of more benign posts,” said John Powers, Director of Interactive Media and Communications for Quinnipiac University Graduate program.
Powers said teens see this content online and are hungry for a reaction.
He suggests parents stay in the know and remind their child that these challenges can have harmful consequences.
“They’ve escalated to the point where now there are weekly issues problems, dangerous things being done, arrests, hospitalizations, all sorts of things,” Powers said.
Willis said police were aware of the guns used as it’s becoming a more prominent trend with teens.
If you have any information on the incident, you’re asked to call Middletown police.
Police said they responded to suspicious activity Tuesday afternoon. They are now investigating.
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