Summary
PopularTwitchstreamer Clix, who has over 7.8 million followers on the platform, recently experienced a swatting incident while IRL streaming at a mall. The sudden police response led to the building being closed and evacuated, interrupting Clix’sTwitchstream and causing significant disruption for those in the mall.
Swatting involves making a false emergency report to law enforcement, which triggers a response from specialized police units. This practice can be dangerous, as it creates a high-risk situation based on a fabricated threat, endangering both the target and responding officers. High-profile streamers are often targeted during live broadcasts, with several such incidents having happened in the past. For example, on May 31, BeardedBlevins, the brother of Twitch star Ninja, was swatted during his livestream.BeardedBlevins described the swatting incidentas police arriving with weapons drawn while his wife interacted with them and their children observed from a basement window.
On September 14, Clix,one of Twitch’s leadingFortnitestreamers, was live-streaming his visit to Town Center Mall in Boca Raton, Florida, when the situation took a dramatic turn. During the stream,Clix claimedthat the mall had been swatted due to a false claim of a nearby shooting, which led to a lockdown and a significant police response. Clix noted that the mall’s doors were all secured, and he described the scene of shoppers panicking, including screaming and crying. The Boca Raton Police Department addressed the situation through several tweets, initially warning people to exit the area via the south side due to a threat reported from the north parking lot.
Boca Raton Police Respond to Swatting Incident Involving Clix
The police later issued a detailed press release explaining that a call had been received claiming someone with guns and explosives was parked on the north side. Police quickly located and secured the vehicle, which was linked tocontroversial Twitch streamer Clix. He was briefly detained but cooperated fully, suggesting that the threat might have been a hoax by a viewer since he was livestreaming. The Bomb Squad found nothing suspicious in the vehicle, and Clix was not arrested. The police stressed that swatting incidents are taken seriously and they will continue to investigate the source of the false threat.
Swatting is undeniably a dangerous and disruptive act, as demonstrated by various past incidents. For instance, in 2022,Twitch streamer QTCinderella disclosed that she developed post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) after her home was swatted. A particularly severe case occurred in 2017 when a 28-year-old father of two was killed during a swatting incident.
