Darren “IShowSpeed” Watkins Jr. has emerged as one of the most celebrated live streamers in the world. He rose to fame for his gaming content and is also well known for his reaction, chatting, and IRL streams. His eventual jump to YouTube proved to be super fortunate and led to multiple achievements like 21 million subscribers on the platform, an award at The Streamy Awards, and more at a very young age.
One of his most recent achievements has been buying a $10 million new house and moving in alone with his cameraman. Although it had been only a couple of weeks, his independence and peace were disturbed after someone had swatted him out at his new house. It was very recently that Speed was streaming on YouTube when a fully armed SWAT team raided his house looking for possible threats or an intruder.
IShowSpeed was playing Fortnite on-stream when he realized that the police/SWAT team had raided his house. His stream was interrupted as he had to go out to face the SWAT team for his own safety. Following that, the armed SWAT team searched every nook and corner of the house including his room.
IShowspeed just got swatted in his new home he purchased a week ago pic.twitter.com/qOt63ouNn2
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) November 21, 2023
Speed was shocked by the incident, and addressed the situation after resolving the situation. It was after the police had found no possible threats and Speed explained the swatting situation they had left the premises. He pleaded to people to stop swatting him out and explained how he had guns pointed at his face and potentially could have died if anything went wrong.
the aftermath pic.twitter.com/z76IqGtTg9
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) November 21, 2023
The swatting issue continues to be a nuisance for IShowSpeed and the streaming industry
Anyone calling the emergency services especially the police or the SWAT team and sending them to a specific location with a possible threat is called swatting. It has to be understood that swatting could prove to be a hazardous activity when targeted towards the general public or any popular personalities. The police or the SWAT team usually come in with force and fully armed looking out for threats so any misunderstanding could lead to serious injuries to the innocent.
It has been quite some time now that haters or viewers of a particular live streamer have been taking advantage of swatting and sending the police or even armed forces to their location. Multiple streamers including IShowSpeed, Adin David Ross, Nico “Sneako”, and more have reported several swatting events. Swatting therefore interrupts their scheduled working curriculum and peaceful living.
swatters deserve the max sentence allowed icl
— x🪐 (@randyswrld_) November 21, 2023
Those officers on smoke I thought speed was gone thank god he’s ok
— Awtism (@ishowawtism) November 21, 2023
The online community was mad about the situation and demanded maximum prison time for the swatters. People were also confused about how the police did not understand the situation to be false when they were sent to the same locations with nothing to be found. Twitter users also mentioned how they were scared of Speed getting hurt and proceeded to thank God after they saw him unharmed.
