The senior assassins game is back. Here’s why police are concerned

A year after it led to a serious rollover crash in one suburb and a near shooting tragedy in another, police and school leaders are warning their communities about the “senior assassins” game that’s become a staple of graduation season at local high schools.

The game features graduates-to-be competing to “assassinate” each other — typically with a water or paintball gun — over the final weeks of classes. The last senior standing wins a prize, usually a pot of cash from entry fees.

Because the rules at most schools ban hits on campus during school hours, they are carried out elsewhere around town.

That’s when problems occur, Lake Zurich Police Chief Steve Husak told us this week.

“Unfortunately, that puts it out there in the community, where the majority of residents don’t have kids in the high school, so they don’t know this is happening,” he said. “They see a person being chased by someone with what looks like a real weapon, and it can appear very disturbing.”

That’s what happened at a Gurnee restaurant last April, when a group of masked students rushed in armed with what looked like handguns. A patron licensed to carry a concealed weapon thought it was the real thing and pulled his gun on the teens.

Fortunately, a quick-thinking server at the restaurant knew the students were carrying water guns and intervened before tragedy occurred.

Another tragedy narrowly was avoided a week earlier when students playing the game in Itasca got into a car chase that ended with a crash that left one of the vehicles rolled over on its side. None of the students involved were injured, but they did end up with citations from police.

While we haven’t learned of any near-calamities in the suburbs so far this year, in February an off-duty law enforcement officer in Florida shot and wounded a student who was seen prowling outside a home while playing the game.

That’s the kind of incident Husak hoped to avoid when his department and Lake Zurich Unit School District 95 worked to educate students and the community about the game.

Their effort included a letter from the district to students’ families stating that those caught playing the game at school or during school events, or carrying a look-alike weapon on campus, will face discipline up to expulsion.

Danielle Stevens, District 95’s director of security and safety, said Lake Zurich High students were putting themselves at risk last year by chasing each other through campus parking lots during busy dismissal times.

Students this year have been receptive to suggestions from school officials, she told us in a statement.

“They have taken our concerns seriously and have posted updated rules on their official Instagram page, including that participants will be disqualified for unsafe behavior,” Stevens said.

Elsewhere, police in suburbs including Arlington Heights, Glendale Heights, Pingree Grove, South Elgin and Antioch have put out messages about the game via social media and other channels.

“We don’t want what appears to have become a high school tradition to turn into something deadly,” Arlington Heights Police Chief Nicholas Pecora said.

Last year, when his officers responded to a report of a man with a gun running through a yard, it ended up being a senior assassins player. And this week, Arlington Heights officials received a report of an armed person walking near two schools and a park. Again, it was a student playing the game.

Other departments’ messages include a photo of a squirt pistol that looks like a real gun and a list of consequences students can face — from trespassing charges to an aggravated assault arrest — while playing.

“While this game may seem like harmless fun, it creates serious safety concerns for the participants, the responding officers, and the public,” South Elgin police posted on Facebook.

No second chances

A former South Barrington man convicted in 2019 of drowning his wife in a bathtub 19 years earlier shouldn’t get a new trial, a state appellate court ruled last week.

Frank Buschauer had argued in a petition for a new trial that he wasn’t properly notified of his rights in 2019, when he decided to pass on a jury trial and instead let a judge decide his case.

That judge later convicted Buschauer of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Cynthia Hrisco. Authorities alleged he drowned his 47-year-old wife on Feb. 28, 2000, as the couple argued over cost overruns and poor construction of their Overbrook Road home.

Why 19 years between the crime and trial? Authorities said they initially lacked evidence to charge Buschauer, but after reopening the case in 2010 with new forensic testing, he was arrested on murder charges in 2013.

In his bid for a new trial, Buschauer claimed the judge that heard his case didn’t fully explain the consequences of him waiving a jury trial and his unfamiliarity with the criminal justice system left him unable to understand his rights.

But in its March 28 ruling, the First District Appellate Court notes that Buschauer signed a document stating he understood his rights, and his education and work history — he was a retired chemical engineer at the time — makes it unlikely he couldn’t understand the proceedings.

“Under these circumstances, we find Buschauer voluntarily, intelligently, and knowingly waived his right to a jury trial,” Justice Michael B. Hyman wrote in the unanimous decision. “Nothing in the record indicates a lack of familiarity with our justice system and his constitutional rights, particularly considering his substantial education.”

Buschauer, who’s now 76 years old, won’t be eligible for parole until 2044, according to state records.

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