YouTuber Etika was detained by the NYPD after allegedly making suicide references during an Instagram live stream.
Desmond ‘Etika’ Amofah had a 30-minute standoff on Instagram Live with the NYPD after he was reportedly “swatted” — a phrase used to describe an incident where someone calls the police to have a SWAT Team raid someone else.
Etika initially refused to open the door to his apartment and the responding NYPD officers broke down his door and detained the YouTuber.
“I’m really scared right now,” the popular YouTuber said on his Instagram Live stream with over 19,000 viewers watching as several police officers, equipped with riot gear, entered his premises to detain him. The social media star can be heard speaking to the police officers before he is removed from his Brooklyn residence.
Etika just got arrested live on instagram by nypd pic.twitter.com/ilGdf1xBYb
— Rod 'keydaddy' Breslau (@Slasher) April 29, 2019
Later in the day, the 28-year-old talked about the “swatting” in a series of tweets. In one, Etika threatened to press charges against the person who he claims “swatted” him.
Wasn't I #1 trending in the world today? Thanks to swatting.
Internet personalities shouldn't have to fear for their lives like this.
I am a powerful black man.
I will not fold to intimidation from internet trolls trying to ruin my life online. Another swatter got 25 years.
— Etika @ 999 (@Etika) April 30, 2019
Can I please press charges against the people that swatted me today @NYPDnews ?
— Etika @ 999 (@Etika) April 30, 2019
I would like to press charges against the individual that claimed I was suicidal to Swat my home. You destroyed my property, wasted the New York City Police Department's time, and my own personal time. You cost this city tens of thousands of dollars.
I will be pressing charges.
— Etika @ 999 (@Etika) April 30, 2019
Swatting is a criminal harassment act of making a hoax phone call to law enforcement so that they respond to a particular address.
A lot of footage has emerged from Etika’s alleged swatting incident. One video shows the gaming streamer being detained and carried away on a stretcher.
https://twitter.com/NGameTheCube/status/1122940783693189120
Etika took another video from his Brooklyn apartment where he is seen yelling to police from his window that “people online are trying to hurt me”. The YouTuber continues by telling the NYPD officers that he is being targeted because he makes “a lot of porn.”
— Etika @ 999 (@Etika) April 29, 2019
Fiona Nova, who is friends with Etika and can be seen with him in photos on his Instagram, claims that he suffers from bipolar disorder and has blocked his close friends who are attempting to help him.
He's blocked all his close friends, don't take it personally.
He's mentally ill and has had numerous manic episodes in the past. Bipolar disorder/Hypo-Mania, is not a joke and he won't get better unless he decides he wants treatment. There is nothing we can do atm, it's on him.— Fiona Nova (@FionaNova) April 29, 2019
Since being detained by the police, Etika has continued to post a string of messages on Twitter and also posted a photo of a letter from Brooklyn Methodist Hospital on his Instagram account.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw3C8Onh0fT/