Pokemon Go players shot at with pellet gun

• The crowd had gathered by the shops and restaurants on Main Street, smartphones in hand, jockeying to capture digital creatures. Suddenly, four shots whizzed by.

The group was playing Pokemon Go and the woman on the rooftop, armed with a pellet gun, was allegedly aiming at them.

Police in Newmarket, Ont., say Patricia Champagne, 29, climbed onto the roof of her two-storey apartment building late Saturday, and fired at least four pellets down onto the road.

Champagne did not tell officers why she did this, Const. Andy Pattenden of York Regional Police (YPR) said Monday. But even if Pokemon Go, an augmentedreality mobile game released this month, did not provoke her actions, it appears to have played a part.

“There’s a couple of areas in York Region where we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of people out on the streets and gathering in certain areas, playing this game,” Pattenden said.

That includes Main Street South in Newmarket, a cluster of stores, restaurants and residential buildings, where bystanders told police they were playing Pokemon Go Saturday night.

At about 10:30 p.m., officers responded to reports of a woman “shooting a handgun-style pellet gun” from a nearby roof, according to a YRP release.

None of the shots connected, and no one was injured. Officers entered the apartment complex, arrested Champagne and confiscated the pellet gun.

Police charged Champagne with assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. She was released from custody and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 26.