El Paso County Sheriff’s Office warns of dangerous social media challenge

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The El Paso County Sheriff's Office is warning the community of the latest social media challenge, the "Orbeez" challenge, which encourages people to shoot people with water-filled beans.

"Participates are being encouraged to film themselves out in a public setting shooting random people with them and then posting that online for views and clicks and whatever it is they do," said Sgt. Jason Garrett with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

According to the sheriff's office, the challenge has resulted in serious injuries to the victims, and those responsible face Felony level charges.

"You can buy realistic-looking water bead guns and some of them you can adjust the velocity settings on them to mirror what a steel BB would shoot out 250 feet per second and they’re doing that," said Sgt. Garrett.

Sgt. Garrett says they are starting to see the trend in the Falcon area.

According to the sheriff's office, some of the other worries about the challenge include:

• The beads are sometimes frozen before they’re used making them more destructive
• Many of these water bead guns match the appearance of actual firearms; it’s impossible at a quick glance to tell the difference
• There have been numerous instances reported nationally of law enforcement officers who have been fired upon and struck by water beads after being confronted by teenagers brandishing these water bead guns

"What we want to avoid is them being out in public doing these pranks, pulling one of these guns out, and being engaged by a concealed carry holder or a cop seeing this and not having any idea that that is a fake gun," said Sgt. Garrett.

A juvenile in Illinois was charged with shooting multiple students at a high school. In Texas, five teens were detained for participating in the Orbeez Challenge.

Police in California worry the guns being used will be mistaken as actual firearms.