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Handful ticketed, police on alert over city-wide paintball fight
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BATON ROUGE – A handful of people have been charged in what appears to be a renegade city-wide paintball “war.”
As many as four people were cited for shooting off rounds from a paintball gun after police were dispatched to suspicious incidents and damage to property Thursday night. The group was ticketed for damage to property and their paintball guns were confiscated, a Baton Rouge Police spokesperson told WBRZ.
Friday, police and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's deputies were on alert after hearing of a group potentially meeting up at an abandoned apartment complex. Authorities were patrolling around Brandywine on Darryl Drive.
Police said they've received reports related to people shooting paintball guns at property and learned of the juvenile “war.”
“We received reports of a flyer that was circulating asking guys to put their guns down and pick up paintball guns,” L'Jean McKneely, a BRPD spokesperson, said.
A Twitter feed shared a thread of messages related an ongoing assault using paintball guns over the last 18 hours and advertised for a 4 o'clock shootout at Brandywine.
Video on the feed showed people shooting at a bicyclist from a passing car and also of a paintball shootout in the parking lot of a business near the corner of Sherwood and Choctaw.
“Ain’t nobody safe in BR,” the account tweeted with the video of someone shooting a bicyclist with a paintball gun.
On April 3, the account tweeted a picture with the words “community clean up” and paintball guns.
McKneely said officers have been advised and told to be on the lookout for people randomly shooting paintball guns.
In videos posted online, most of those involved appear to be teenagers or people in their 20s.
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