It seems that ‘swatting’ is still becoming increasingly more common towards online livestreamers and internet personalities. This time, popular Runescape livestreamer Joshua Peters, also known as “koopatroopa787” found himself to be the latest victim.
‘Swatting’ is the practice of calling the police for a SWAT team to investigate a property on the suspicion of terror attacks and other forms of offensive situations. Many ‘online trolls’ target livestreamers so their reactions can be captured and posted online.
A hoax call initiated a SWAT team of at least 10 to raid the streamer’s property during a stream of approximately 60,000 viewers last Thursday which involved his 10-year-old brother being held at gunpoint by police forces with Automatic Rifles. Thankfully, nobody was injured by the raid, only emotional scars have remained.
“I had police point a gun at my little brother because of you”
His mother explains officers had entered the house where after his 10-year-old brother answered the door, allowing the SWAT team in, called falsely to investigate. Shortly after the invasion had occurred, Peters, part of the US Air Force returned to his stream to say a message to the anonymous offender who had earlier posted his address in the streams’ chat.
There have been no reported injuries during a swatting raid of a streamer, however there have been highly classified stories of injury and even death following raids such as the one Peters experienced.