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TapInto: Four New Brunswick Residents Struck with Pellets in Drive By

Via Tapinto New Brunswick Editor Chuck O’Donnell  NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – The New Brunswick Police Department is investigating an incident in which four people were struck with projectiles, possibly from an…

Orbeez Gun

The increase in the Orbeez challenge (shooting water pellets at people) has become a distrubing trend. Photo: Volusia, Fla. Sheriff’s Office VIA TapInto New Brunswick.

Via Tapinto New Brunswick Editor Chuck O'Donnell 

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – The New Brunswick Police Department is investigating an incident in which four people were struck with projectiles, possibly from an airsoft or toy blaster gun.

The victims were walking near the intersection of George and Bayard streets at about 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 9 when the occupants of a vehicle shot pellets at them, according to a safety alert from the Rutgers University Police Department.

One victim refused medical attention after sustaining a non-life-threatening injury.

The vehicle was described as a tan Toyota Sienna minivan that left Bayard Street toward Joyce Kilmer Avenue.

One of the four victims is described as being "affiliated with Rutgers," terminology used by Rutgers Police to describe a university student or staff or faculty member.

There have been widespread reports of drive-by-style shootings in which frozen water pellets, made by Orbeez, have been fired at unsuspecting people.

The trend has been traced back to a TikTok trend called the “Orbeez Challenge,” and it comes after other TikTok trends have dared people to eat Tide Pods liquid laundry detergent and lick toilet seats to prove they’re immune to COVID-19.

ABC News in New York reported that police in Westwood, N.J., were investigating an incident last month when a teen was seen shooting Orbeez water gel pellets.

TAPinto Westfield reported on March 31 that police there were exploring “all possible motives” in a pair of pellet gun shootings that targeted people in the town.

In a twist to the Orbeez Challenge, Nutley Police said teens shot the pellets at a passing car, according to a TAPinto Nutley report.

Shootings stemming from the Orbeez Challenge have injured people in several states, but one of the most disturbing came when a woman pushing a child in a stroller was the victim of a drive-by Orbeez shooting.

The Port Orange Police Department is investigating that incident, according to the Volusia County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office.

The New Brunswick Police Department asks that anyone with information, or who may have been in the area at the time, contact the NBPD’s Detective Bureau at 732-745-5200.

Michael Cohen is the News and Sports Director at Fox Sports Radio New Jersey and Magic 98.3 FM, as well as a radio production assistant with Fox and Magic in New Jersey. He started his career in Somerset in 2018 initially as a news fill-in at WCTC 1450 AM, and soon moved up to higher responsibilities in the ensuing years, assuming News & Sports Director title in 2021Prior to his time with Fox Sports New Jersey, Michael was play-by-play voice for New Jersey Jackals baseball, and as well as play-by-play and color for the College of Staten Island basketball (men and women), softball and baseball. Michael began his career as a news and sportswriter with the Jersey Journal of Hudson County.