5 Call of Duty Swatting Incidents

There was a time when “swatting” was so rare that nobody had ever heard of it. In the digital age, though, swatting has become so common that instances barely make the front page of headlines unless tragedy happens. Many of the targets for swatting are live streamers, many of which have rubbed certain fans the wrong way. All it takes is one deranged viewer to swat someone, and the results can be deadly.

If you’re unfamiliar with swatting, it’s when emergency services are called to someone’s house that requires the local SWAT team to arrive. This can be anything from a bomb threat to a hostage situation, and the SWAT team enters the home with their weapons drawn expecting the worst. However, they find unarmed people who were simply live streaming. Some of the most common targets for swatting are streamers who play “Call of Duty” games in front of fans. Here are five instances of those streamers being swatted.

Casey Viner

The tragic and unnecessary event surrounding this swatting incident resulted in the death by officer shooting of an uninvolved victim Andrew Finch. In 2017 a feud erupted between Call of Duty: WWII players Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill. At the height of their dispute, Viner threatened Gaskill with the act of swatting. 

Gaskill proceeded to give Viner a false address in Wichita, Kansas. Viner’s friend Tyler Barris made the actual call to the police department, resulting in a swift arrival at Finch’s residence. Unaware of why police were swarming his home, Finch exited his home and officer Justin Rapp fatally shot the innocent man. 

Drift0r

In 2021 streamer and YouTube personality Drift0r revealed he and his family were victims of multiple swatting attempts at his Texas residence in 2019 and 2020. He posted a video on his YouTube channel discussing his experience with those incidents where he claimed there was a barrage of violence against him and his family by crazed fans of other creators who had a strong disliking for the streamer. 

He stays vigilant, though he’s reported a number of perpetrators have been apprehended by police and the charges were brought upon them. The trials have since ended, giving him the freedom to detail the harrowing experience further. 

Nadia Amine

Twitch streamer and Warzone pro Nadia Amine was one of the more recent incidents where a popular Call of Duty streamer was swatted. Though, the outcome was much more wholesome and didn’t result in anyone being injured. 

The SWAT member involved with investigating the call thankfully had knowledge of the streaming platform Twitch and the swatting of popular streamers. He even joined the stream at one point and encouraged viewers to sub to the channel and help Amine reach her sub goals. A wholesome outcome for what could have been another tragedy. 

iShowSpeed

Another recent swatting attempt came on August 8th, 2022 to twitch streamer and YouTuber iShowSpeed. The fun and energetic up-and-comer, who was a regular on Call of Duty, was swatted during a YouTube live stream where he was placed in handcuffs and arrested at his home. 

He was thankfully unharmed, though very shaken up and confused by what had occurred. Fellow streamer, Adin Ross, who became a swatting victim just one day before, was said to have paid the streamer’s enormous bail for his unnecessary arrest. 

Adin Ross

When he first started streaming, Adin Ross teamed up with his sister and started to grow a following on Twitch. Ross was known in his early years for playing the NBA 2K franchise, and even rubbed elbows with some current ballplayers. Ross quickly became one of the most followed people on Twitch with millions of loyal fans that would boost his popularity.

While Ross has certainly been a controversial figure on Twitch and YouTube, nobody deserves to be swatted due to the danger of the situation. However, multiple people felt the need to do just that, and in late 2022, he was swatted twice in a matter of weeks. After the second incident, Ross tweeted out “I’m done bro. I really got swatted again please stop whoever’s doing it.” The person who claimed to be the swatter said they did it because they felt Ross deserved it and that he didn’t respond to a message on Discord.