A Kansas resident has been sentenced to over three and a half years in prison for a shooting that stemmed from a high school water gun game, according to authorities. The incident involved 49-year-old Ruben Contreras, who was found guilty of aggravated battery after shooting high school senior Anakin Zehring in the spring of 2024. The verdict came in November 2025, marking a significant legal conclusion to this unusual case.

The altercation occurred on May 11, 2024, around 4:45 p.m., when Zehring, then 18, and two friends visited a Walmart on West Kellogg Drive in Goddard, Kansas. They arrived in a blue Chevrolet Spark, participating in a game of “assassins” — a favored tradition among high school seniors where players attempt to “eliminate” each other using water guns.

As Contreras’ daughter and her boyfriend were entering the store to purchase supplies for her brother’s graduation party, the blue vehicle approached. According to a probable cause affidavit, the teenagers inside were yelling profanities and announcing themselves as “senior assassins.” Zehring then reportedly brandished a gel blaster, a toy gun that shoots polymer water beads, and fired at the pair.

Both Contreras’ daughter and her boyfriend later stated they did not recognize the people in the vehicle, leading to the unexpected and violent escalation of what was intended to be a harmless game. This incident underscores the potential for misunderstanding and conflict even in seemingly benign situations.

According to the girl and her boyfriend, they did not know the individuals in the vehicle.

After they were hit with the gels, the couple went into the Walmart store to get away. A short time later, the boyfriend walked out of the Walmart to “confront” the people who had shot the water beads at them — as they were walking in. According to him, one of them “called him a b— and later told him to meet him out back of the Walmart.”

Zehring and his two friends were ultimately “chased out” of the store by an employee, and they went to a nearby Dairy Queen before walking back to the Chevy Spark about five minutes later, the court document continues. Contreras’ daughter had since called her father, saying she had been shot with a gel blaster, and they went into their vehicle to wait.

Once Zehring and his friends got back in his car and started to drive out of the lot, they observed a man “sprinting” toward them. Zehring slowed down, believing the man was just trying to cross the crosswalk, but when Contreras reached the vehicle, he pulled out a black Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun from his waist and fired one round through the back window into Zehring’s lower back.

The car kept rolling in the parking lot and crashed into nearby shipping containers. Zehring had been hit in the kidney and liver and was “screaming that he could not move.” The other two people in the car got out and “ran into a field” nearby.

Emergency services arrived and transported Zehring to an area hospital. Detectives also responded and found Contreras, still with the gun on him. He was arrested.

One witness told investigators that he heard a “pop” when the shot was fired, and when he asked Contreras what happened, the man replied, “they shot my daughter.”

Contreras was also charged with attempted murder, but the jury acquitted him on that charge last November.

A GoFundMe posted by Zehring’s parents in the weeks after the shooting said their “lives changed forever” when their son “was involved in the tragic incident at the Goddard Walmart shooting.” They added that “his life took a dramatic turn on that fateful day” as “the bullet caused significant damage to his body.”

The shooting left Zehring paralyzed.