Lakeville 'Nerf Wars' Crash Victims' Mothers Speak Out
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Michelle Flynn and Elisabeth Price spent this Mother's Day without one of their children.
"It's been a living hell," Price said. "It's like somebody rips your guts out every morning when you wake up."
On December 4, 2015, their sons Jake Flynn and Johnny Price were killed in a car accident during a game of "nerf wars" in a pickup truck with friends.
"It's not that innocent childhood toy anymore," Flynn said. "It makes me sick."
The mothers decided to speak out in light of the ongoing popularity of nerf wars among teens, including a nerf war game that contributed to a crash involving two teenagers in New Hope on Monday.
"You just want to shake them and say this is real it can happen to you," Flynn said.
Johnny's father did talk to him two weeks before the crash, asking him not to play.
"[He] said what is it going to take, someone to die," Price said. "It ended up being our son."
The mothers are asking parents to check in with their kids—ask if their friends are playing nerf wars and how. They said the game should never involve vehicles.
"I don't think you move on from something like this," Price said. "I don't think people understand unless they 've been through it."
"I just want a do-over," Flynn said.
The families have created scholarships in the boys' honor.
Memorials for Johnny Price can be sent to: Johnny Price Blizzard Memorial Fund at 3200 Labore Road, #102, Vadnais Heights, MN 55110
Memorials for can be sent to: Jake Flynn Memorial Fund at any U.S. Bank.
