Officers at shooting near home tied to Joe Mixon referenced ‘dart wars.’ Here’s what they are
Police and school administrators have issued warnings to teens for years about the annual tradition of "dart wars" or "Nerf wars." They were concerned someone might be hurt.
Now, some southwest Ohio residents suspect an actual shooting on Monday was connected to the game. Police radio traffic recorded Monday suggests the same.
The Hamilton County (Ohio) Sheriff's Office has released very few details about the incident that involved a home associated with Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon. Dispatch records show the juvenile was hit in the foot by a bullet or bullet fragment and was taken to an area hospital. No arrests have been reported and no names have been released.
MORE COVERAGE: Police enter home of Joe Mixon after reports of shots fired
NEVER MISS A SNAP!: Sign up to get the latest NFL news and features sent to your inbox
A neighbor told Fox19, a media partner of the Cincinnati Enquirer, which is part of the Paste BN Network, that her son’s friends were outside playing Nerf wars when she said they went onto the property tied to Mixon the night of the shooting. She said she heard about seven real gunshots that night.
Just after 8:30 p.m., a Hamilton County dispatcher in an archived recording said someone had called 911 and had "witnessed several males and females running at this location. … One of them pulled out a gun, ran toward the back of the building, several shots were heard. A male with a gun was seen running, getting into a jeep. … Two other vehicles involved … they fled at a high rate of speed."
Less than three minutes later, a deputy came over the radio: "It's juveniles. They are doing dart wars. Slow everyone down."
Warning issued in February
In a newsletter to parents sent Feb. 17, Turpin (Cincinnati) High School principal David Spencer addressed dart wars. Turpin is in the Forest Hills School District along with Anderson (Cincinnati) High School. Anderson officials confirmed the juvenile injured Monday was a student there.
Spencer explained that this is a student-led activity that is not school-sponsored. He said the game cannot be played on school grounds or disrupt education in any way.
He encouraged parents to talk to their kids about safety. He said the game has led students to hide around homes, drive recklessly and make unsafe decisions. Over the past several years, the sheriff's office has been called at least once each year about dart wars.
"Many of the Nerf guns and homemade devices resemble a real gun to a person seeing from afar," Spencer said. "In the world we live in today, that may cause extreme concern and a certain reaction that was unintended by our young adults."
What are dart wars?
Spencer explained the game in his newsletter. Students organize teams and collect entry fees. Pairs of teams face off against each other each week, usually in a bracket-style elimination. They shoot at each other with the popular foam dart guns to earn points. The entry fees are usually shared between the winners or top teams.
The tradition is not specific to Forest Hills. Many area students organize games, some date back nearly 25 years.
In 2016, the game in the Lakota (Ohio) Local School District grabbed headlines for having a risque rule: a student could not be shot if that student was naked. The specter of streaking minors led administrators there to call the game "risky" and "dangerous."
Police in Butler County (Ohio) warned students in 2020 about taking things too seriously. Hamilton Township (Ohio) police reported students dressing in all black and painting their dart gun black to make them appear more real.
"Nobody wants anyone to get hurt," Chief Scott Hughes said at the time. "We want you guys to have fun and enjoy it. Just got to use some common sense and have some responsibility."