Updated: Several 'Orbeez' Blaster Gun Incidents Reported in Volusia, Shooters Face Charges

Date Added: March 16, 2022 4:51 pm

Andrew Gant
Office of Public Affairs & Media Relations

SEVERAL 'ORBEEZ' BLASTER GUN INCIDENTS REPORTED IN VOLUSIA, SHOOTERS FACE CHARGES

With reports of an ‘Orbeez Challenge’ circulating around the state and country, law enforcement agencies in Volusia County are warning participants that they could be identified and arrested for shooting at people on the roads and in the community.

Multiple jurisdictions have been receiving reports of people hit by Orbeez, the gel beads fired from toy blaster guns.

Last week, Volusia sheriff’s deputies arrested a 19-year-old man (Sean McMullen, Enterprise, DOB 11/13/2002) who fired Orbeez at an Amazon delivery driver Thursday in Deltona, hitting him in his glasses and his neck while he was driving his route.

McMullen also shot another random adult and a 10-year-old child in the face and chest.

Deputies identified and located McMullen on Friday, charging him with shooting into an occupied vehicle, child abuse, and 2 counts of battery.

Also Friday, two people at Wes Crile Park in Deltona were hit by pellets fired from a van that took off after the shooting.

The same van was reported by another victim, a man trimming trees outside a Deltona home, who told deputies he was shot in the back by Orbeez beads. The pellets broke the skin and left red welts.

Deputies tracked down the van and charged an 18-year-old (Diego Medina Vega, Deltona, DOB 12/16/2003) and two 17-year-olds with battery. Vega was additionally charged with 2 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

This week, a group of kids appeared to be shooting Orbeez at each other from their vehicles when one crashed into a pole Monday at Dewey O. Boster Park in Deltona.

In Port Orange, a woman pushing a child in a stroller was the victim of a drive-by Orbeez shooting. The Port Orange Police Department is investigating.

The New Smyrna Beach Police Department also recently posted a warning about Orbeez.

***

Update (3/23/22): Another Orbeez incident was reported this week, resulting in a felony charge for a New Smyrna Beach High School student who shot a school employee in the face from his car.

A deputy responded to NSBHS around 3:20 p.m. Monday after a campus adviser reported she was shot with the pellets while locking a gate near the faculty parking lot. She told the deputy she was hit in the face several times and had to blow one of the projectiles out of her nose, but was not injured.

Deputies identified the student involved and interviewed him the following day. The 17-year-old said he was horseplaying with the blaster gun he got during spring break, and recorded a Snapchat video while he shot at the school employee. He was charged with battery on a school employee.