Young YouTuber Darren “IShowSpeed” Watkins (17) is known for controversies. In a stream, he displayed an alleged prank call to the police. Although it was said not to be real, police showed up at his house and handcuffed him while he was still live on air. This was because someone else had actually called the police aside from his prank call.
Who is IShowSpeed?
- The only 17-year-old American is actually a talented shooter player, but he is mainly known for his loud personality and controversies.
- A sexist outburst caused a permanent ban in Valorant and he barked at a young boy after betting money with him in Fortnite.
- With this content, he has been very successful: Since April 2021, his YouTube channel has grown from 100,000 subscribers to 10 million.
- Especially among a younger audience, Speed, as his fans call him, is extremely popular.
IShowSpeed is already permanently banned on Twitch. The 5 bans that caused a lot of commotion on the streaming platform can be seen in the video.
Streamer Handcuffed
This is known: In a short video published on IShowSpeed’s YouTube channel, it can be seen how the streamer is questioned by police in front of his house. His hands are handcuffed behind his back.
Watkins assures that he has done nothing. His cameraman, who is filming the scene, remains calm. The streamer seems to have been swatted, but everything is fine. Then a police officer asks him to end the livestream.
This refers to a dangerous trend, which can sometimes end fatally. Viewers make an emergency call to the police and claim that there is a significant threat posed by a streamer. The police then respond with a special task force (S.W.A.T.) and show up heavily armed to the streamers, often captured live.
Prank Call Gets Out of Control
How did it happen? In a livestream from August 7, Watkins shows how he dials 911. That is the American emergency number. Misusing it for other purposes – such as prank calls – is illegal.
Later, however, it became known that IShowSpeed did not actually call the real “911”, but a friend whose number he had saved as “911”.
Why does he call emergency services? Watkins claims he wants to set his PlayStation 4 on fire with a lighter. A similar action led to a fire department response in his room in July. This time he wants to play it safe and ask if it’s a good idea.
What did the police say? The supposed police officer advises him against setting the console on fire inside his house. Watkins thanks him and explains that he will burn the PlayStation while still on the line. Then chaos breaks out.
More than a small flame is not visible, but suddenly Watkins starts shouting for help. He makes noises as if he is not getting any air and pleads with the supposed police officer to send emergency services to his house.
After the call, Watkins seems to lose his nerves. He urges his chat to stay calm and not make him nervous. If the police show up, he would just claim that his little cousin had called.
Then he continues the stream normally. He wants to calm down and “chill”. A few minutes later, he shows flashing lights in front of his door and claims that the police have shown up.
After a short break, he updates his chat: Everything is fine, the police are already gone, his mom is taking care of everything and he doesn’t have to go to jail. Now he just has to destroy the PlayStation.
Together with his cameraman, who has now joined him, he wants to destroy the console. The stream ends after he successfully disassembles his PlayStation in the garden.
What happened between the two videos is not known. But apparently, Watkins was indeed swatted at the same time as his action and had the real police in his house.
Doubts About the Authenticity of the Recordings
Are the videos real? There is already discussion about it. E-sports journalist Jake Lucky initially published the video of Watkins’ alleged arrest on Twitter. He wrote that the streamer was allegedly swatted.
The word “allegedly” caused upset among Watkins’ fans. The recordings would indeed prove that there was a police operation. Only the prank call to the police was not real. Watkins had saved a friend’s number under 911 and called that.
Twitch streamer Adin Ross is also said to have been a victim of swatting a few days ago. He stated that he spoke with Watkins. On Twitter, he confirmed that both he and Watkins were indeed swatted, but assured his fans that they were both fine.
Other users are viewing the whole situation with skepticism and believe the recordings are staged.
Apparently, you cannot just prank call the police and then keep your credibility when they really show up.
Trouble with the police also hit the CEO of an organization in e-sports. However, this seems to have been more than just a prank call, as the e-sports CEO is said to have been involved in drug trafficking of over 33 million euros and is being sought by police.
