Detroit Police Crack Down On Citywide Paintball Wars
After a post on social media went viral publicizing a citywide paintball war in Detroit, police stepped up their game over the weekend – resulting in six arrests and a patrol car splattered in paint.
On Wednesday night, police arrested Davon Williams (22) after almost a dozen paintballs struck the side of Captain Darrel Patterson’s vehicle. This occurred after the unmarked police car turned on its sirens, as Patterson spotted approximately 50 people wielding paintball guns and shooting each other. Williams was arraigned on Friday and is facing assault charges and charges for propelling an object at a vehicle; luckily these are both misdemeanors.
While there were no injures reported for the events on Wednesday, five other people were arrested and four people were ticketed for disorderly conduct. Speaking on Friday about the events, Chief of Police James Craig said: “If you want to work with us and stop the violence, there are a number of things we can do together, but having paintball wars across the city is not the way to do it.”
PAINT UP, GUNS DOWN?
“Well-intentioned, however, misguided.” Chief Craig addresses the recent gun violence reduction efforts in the city of Detroit. #DPD pic.twitter.com/bFecWhKv5D
— Detroit Police Dept. (@detroitpolice) April 27, 2018
Craig also added that he’s concerned about what could possibly happen if events like these continue. Due to the size and nature of paintball guns, they may be mistaken for actual firearms – and if people aren’t careful, police may return fire with something more painful than a ball of paint.
“I’m calling them replica firearms, because when you look at some of these paint guns they look just like an actual firearm. With armed citizens, police officers when confronted with someone with a replica weapon – or in this case a paint gun – they may make the mistake of thinking it’s a real firearm and feel threatened.”
