A girl claims she suffered serious eye injuries when a car full of minor boys shot her with Orbeez pellets using an airsoft gun as part of a TikTok challenge.
Minor Adrianna Perez, by her mother Berta Perez, filed the complaint on Nov. 27 in the Madison County Circuit Court against and Damian Feeny, Janetta Feeny, Kyle Pacatte, Jessica Pacatte, Steven Duft, Jessica Duft, Ricky Buhmann, Tabitha Buhmann, and minors Lucas Feeny, Chase Pacatte, Dylan Duft, and Gavin Buhmann.
According to the complaint, Adrianna Perez was walking on a sidewalk on Quail Dr. in Highland on April 3, 2022. At the same time, Lucas Feeny was operating a 2014 red Hyundai with Chase Pacatte, Dylan Duft and Gavin Buhmann riding as passengers. Feeny allegedly slowed his vehicle down to allow the passengers to shoot Perez with Orbeez pellets using “airsoft guns.”
The defendants allegedly struck Perez in the right eye and then fled the scene.
“That the ‘drive-by’ shooting of the plaintiff with Orbeez pellets was a challenge which was promoted by TikTok and referred to on its social media platform as the ‘Orbeez Challenge,’” the suit states.
The suit states that the defendants caused Perez to suffer serious and permanent injuries to her eye.
The plaintiffs allege the defendants negligently and carelessly participated in the “Orbeez Challenge” and “failed to understand the risk and danger of shooting Orbeez pellets at an unsuspecting pedestrian.”
The defendant parents are being sued for failing to supervise their children when they should have known that the boys were participating in the “Orbeez Challenge,” for carelessly providing a gun for their children to shoot plastic pellets and for providing no instruction or supervision regarding the guns.
The plaintiffs seek compensation in excess of $50,000 for each count, plus court costs and any other relief the court deems just. They are represented by attorney Alvin Paulson of Belleville.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 23-LA-1620