Scary New 'Game' for Teens: Knockout

A terrifying new "game" is sweeping across the nation: "Knockout." Just like it sounds, it involves targeting a stranger on the street and rendering him unconscious with one punch, WPIX reports. Videos of the attacks are increasing on YouTube, WJLA reports. The NYPD is investigating a series of attacks in Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn as possible hate crimes; officers think they may be related to the game. There have been reports of similar attacks recently in other US cities and even London, KDVR reports; victims have actually died of their injuries in Syracuse, St. Louis, and New Jersey, CBS Local reports.

One teen described the "game" this way: "It’s for the fun of it. It’s like when you were a little kid, running around and hitting people. Only now you’re grown, so you can knock ’em out. Even though they shouldn’t be doing it, people do it." Another says in one "knockout" video, "They just want to see if you got enough strength to knock somebody out." The "game" may have spread to DC, where a woman tells DCist eight males surrounded her on bikes Thursday night and one hit her on the back of the head. (More teenagers stories.)