Cops Think 2 Teens Died in 'Nerf Wars' Crash

Boys may have been playing with Nerf guns when they lost control of truck, barrel-rolled
By Luke Roney,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 7, 2015 7:55 AM CST
Cops Think 2 Teens Died in 'Nerf Wars' Crash
Games involving Nerf guns are popular with kids and adults.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Police say a game of "Nerf wars" may be behind a crash that killed two teens and injured two others Friday in the Minneapolis, Minn., suburb of Lakeville, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Johnny Price, 18, and Jake Flynn, 17, both students at Lakeville South High School, died in the single-vehicle accident. Alexander Hughes, 17, who was driving the truck, was hospitalized in critical condition. A third passenger was hospitalized and released. Dakota County Sheriff Tim Leslie says a search of the vehicle Monday may turn up evidence that the teens were playing a game with toy Nerf guns when the truck veered off the road and went into a "barrel roll." Police also will analyze data on the truck’s computer in hopes of piecing together the accident's cause. "The truck is just destroyed," Leslie says. "It really, really took a tumble."

Initial speculation that a second vehicle was involved in car-to-car Nerf wars was unfounded, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports; a witness to the accident saw only one vehicle. Leslie, per the Star Tribune, characterizes a Nerf war as an elaborate game in which "captives" are taken. There are "two pages of rules," he says. "There’s money and a competition with a winner." A YouTube search for "Nerf wars" turns up several pages of videos featuring both children and adults. On Saturday, friends and teammates of Price and Flynn—both athletes—gathered at the crash site, CBS Minnesota reports. "They brought so much life to our school," says a classmate. (Earlier this year, an Iowa teen was killed while "car surfing.")

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