Recently, a violent game called “the knockout game” started making headlines in cities across the country. The goal of this crime is to knock out a victim with a single punch. Videos released on the internet show the deadly act. According to abcnews.go.com, the game has been linked to police reports in at least six states, and three people have been killed in suspected knockout assaults.

“I heard about this game occurring in the Chicago area,” sophomore Hallie Miles said.

In Brooklyn, New York, Amirt Marajh, 28,  was accused of assaulting a 24-year-old Orthodox Jewish man in what looks to be a case of the knockout game. He is being charged with a hate crime for the attack. The unidentified victim believes he was assaulted as part of the knockout game.

The Brooklyn victim said he was walking home Friday morning in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn when he was attacked and heard his attackers nearby daring each other to punch him out minutes before he was actually assaulted, according to police.

“This crime sounds extremely disturbing and I can’t understand why people are doing it,” Miles said.

In addition to that case, there have been at least eight attacks over the past few weeks. Police have increased patrols in several Brooklyn neighborhoods where many Jewish people have been targeted.

“The people committing this crime don’t fully understand the harm they are causing to innocent lives,” Officer Keith Gardner said.

Several weeks ago, a 78-year-old Jewish woman in Brooklyn was punched in the face by teenagers while walking down her street. An investigtion was started by the NYPD Hate Crimes Taskforce, leading a New York lawmaker to call for more extreme penalties for the knockout game players.

“These youths who commit these attacks should be put on trial because if the victim dies, it is homicide and overall these attacks are just very messed up,” Miles said.

New York republican state Assemblyman Jim Tedisco proposed a bill that would classify the knockout game attacks as gang assaults, and would force youths who commit these attacks to be tried as adults, facing prsion terms of up to 25 years.

“These twisted and cowardly thugs are preying on innocent bystanders and they don’t care if the victims are young, old, a man or woman. Life isn’t a video game. These are real people whose lives are not only being put in jeopardy but in many cases destroyed,” Tedisco told The Associated Press when he released the bill.

Gardner agrees with Tedisco.

“I think they should be tried as an adult because it is very disturbing and appalling. If the crime shows serious injuries or even death, the crime would fall under a felony and the criminal would be tried as an adult, according the Illinois laws,” Gardner said.

Although police work to stop this crime, the dangerous game appears to be spreading throughout the nation.

According to washington.cbslocal.com Ralph Santiago, 46, a homeless man, was assaulted from behind on the night of Sept. 10 as he was walking alone in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was found dead with his neck broken and head lodged between a nearby iron fence..

Surveillance video showed three teens abandoning the crime scene. Police arrested the teens two weeks later and charged them with the killing that started with the unprovoked attack.

There has been similar incidents reported in Illinois, Missouri and Washington. Currently there is no cases being reported in the Kane County area according to Gardner.

 For more information on this issue got to storify.com/KanelandKrier/deadly-gang-games-knock-out