Armed law enforcement, summoned by a hoax call, raided the home of a popular Runescape livestreamer last week which prompted this emotional message in which the gamer describes his 10-year-old brother being held at gunpoint.
Joshua Peters, who lives in Minnesota and livestreams as "koopatroopa787," uploaded this video on Thursday, following a raid on his home that was captured during a streaming session. No one was hurt in the call to his home, placed by a person still unknown, for reasons also unknown.
"I don't give a shit about what you have against me online," Peters says. "Your gripe is with me, so let it be with me. Do not involve my family in any way shape or form. They don't deserve that."
"He's 10 years old, and he had 10 police officers pointing a gun at him, because he was at the door," Peters says, before breaking down completely.
The practice is sometimes called "swatting," for the SWAT team it's supposed to send to someone's home on rumors of a hostage-taking, shooting or some other urgent and potentially violent crime. The police's arrival has been captured on other livestreams before.
There have been no reports of police harming someone during a "swatting" raid — though there have been other high profile stories of injuries and even death when police have intended to raid an address, but themselves got the wrong one. Needless to say, swatting victims still find it incredibly distressing to have firearms pointed at them and local law enforcement ends up outraged at having its time and resources wasted.
In November, a developer at Bungie was the victim of a swatting in suburban Seattle. In August, someone swatted a Counter-Strike player in Littleton, Colo. (southwest of Denver) and the incident closed down a nearby school. Just recently a Nevada man was arrested in connection with a swatting he called on a Naperville, Ill. video gamer in July. He faces five years in prison.
This is by no means a comprehensive account of game-related swatting incidents, even over the past year.
