Affidavit: Shooting at Goddard Walmart that left teen paralyzed started over gel blasters

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - A shooting that left a Haysville teenager paralyzed started with an incident involving gel blasters. That’s according to a probable cause affidavit released Wednesday.

The court document states that on May 11, 2024, two teens were at the Goddard Walmart when three other teens pulled up in a blue Chevrolet Spark and shot at them with a gel blaster, a toy gun that fires polymer water beads.

A Walmart employee told Sedgwick County deputies he saw the car driver, later identified as Anakin Zehring, shooting the gel blaster and heard someone from the car yell, “I’m your senior assassin.” The employee said the teens parked their car and jumped out. The employee said he radioed his manager “of the disturbance involving three teenagers who were shooting the gel blaster.”

The employee said the teens entered Walmart and were chased out by the manager about a minute later. The employee said he saw the teens go to Dairy Queen and return to their car. As they were getting inside, he said he saw the two teens who had been shot point out the blue vehicle to an older man, later identified as Ruben Contreras.

Deputies interviewed the two teens, identified as S.C. and G.B., who said they’d been shot. They said “senior assassin” is a game played at Goddard High School “in which students shoot at other students with water guns.”

The couple said a car with three teens inside drove up next to them and started shouting profanities. The teens said the driver pulled out a gel blaster and started shooting them. G.B. said he knew it was a gel blaster after he was hit with one of the rounds. He said his girlfriend was struck several times.

S.C. said the teens drove off and parked in the parking lot while she and G.B. went into Walmart to escape them. G.B. neither he nor S.C. knew the other teens.

While inside the store, S.C. said she called her dad. As the couple was leaving, G.B. said he went to confront the teens as they walked into Walmart. He said one of the teens called him an expletive and “later told him to meet him out back of the Walmart.”

When S.C.’s father (Conteras) arrived at Walmart, she said she pointed at the boys who had shot her. She said her father walked to their car and she “looked down due to being scared of what might happen to her dad.” S.C. said she heard a loud pop and saw the blue car drive away and wreck into shipping containers.

Deputies reviewed Walmart surveillance footage which showed the blue Spark backing out of a parking space. In the video, Contreras can be seen running up to the driver’s side of the Spark and trying to open the door, the affidavit states.

The Spark then drives southbound through the parking lot. As it slows down, Contreras runs back to the driver’s side and “appears to pull out a firearm from the right side of his waistband,” the document reads.

“CONTRERAS has the firearm in his right hand and sticks his hand into the open window of the driver’s side back seat area,” the affidavit continues. “It is at this point CONTRERAS fires one round into the vehicle.”

Anakin Zehring confirmed to deputies that he was driving around the parking lot, but said someone in his car was shooting the gel blaster at people in the parking lot. After leaving Walmart, he noted seeing “the older male walking through the parking lot.”

“Zehring said his ears starting (sic) ringing and realized he had been shot,” the affidavit reads. “Zehring says he turned to the west and realized he couldn’t feel his legs. Zehring stated he hit a pole in the parking lot to get the Spark to stop because he didn’t want to hit anyone in the roadway.”

Deputies arrived on the scene and found the Spark at the west end of the parking lot. Sedgwick County EMS found Zehring in the driver’s seat of the blue Chevrolet Spark with a single gunshot wound to his lower back. He was taken to Ascension Via Christi St. Francis where doctors confirmed Zehring had been shot once.

“The round struck his kidney liver and Zehring may be paralyzed,” the affidavit reads.

On Tuesday, 12 News reporter Cale Chapman spoke with Zehring’s father about his son’s recovery. He said the teen spent three weeks at the hospital before being transferred to Madonna Rehab Facility in Omaha.

On May 15, Contreras was charged with attempted first-degree murder in connection to the case. He is out of jail on a $300,000 bond.