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Three female Twitch streamers midway through a weeklong marathon stream were followed, harassed and then threatened by a man calling himself “Russell” live from Santa Monica’s Pacific Park.
Content creators Cinna, Valkyrae and Emiru had just listened to the man sing when he asked for Emiru’s phone number. After she refused, and refused to enter it into his phone, the man moved aggressively towards the group, appearing to focus on Emiru, and said “I’ll kill you right now, I’ll kill you right now.”
The streamers moved away in panic while calling for security, their cameraman physically intervened to stop the man, and a nearby security guard moved over as the women ran away. The stream stopped shortly afterwards. Here is a clip of the incident. Santa Monica police subsequently escorted the streamers, took a report and conducted a search for the man, who has not yet been found or identified.
It has since emerged that the man had been following the group for a period of time beforehand. The fact this was a livestream also means there’s no shortage of footage of both the incident and the lead-up. This seemingly innocuous clip shows him approaching the group and taking a selfie with both them and the cameraman.
“It is an attempt on our life and we are taking it very seriously. He said he was going to kill us, he kept trying to get something out of his pocket.”
Cinna
This clip occurs shortly afterwards (the on-screen sub count is a few hundred higher) and shows the man, who has now removed his hoodie, singing to the group before asking Emiru for her number, to which she responds that she doesn’t have her phone, after which he tries to get her to enter the number into his phone. Emiru deflects the request but things have clearly gotten awkward, at which point the man says “I’m just going to keep following her.”
The escalation occurs almost immediately after this: The streamers move away, joking they don’t need any more stalkers, pulling up their hoods and putting on sunglasses, and talking about what just happened. The man can then be heard shouting off-camera and says “I’ll fucking fight you right now”, at which point the women become visibly shaken, begin calling security, and try to move away together.
This is when the man approaches before aggressively moving towards the group while making repeated death threats. The incoming presence of the security guard, and the streamers’ cameraman putting himself bodily between the man and the three women, stops the man from reaching the group. The women run away from the scene. Shortly afterwards the stream ends.
“We are aware of video footage circulating online related to the incident and are reviewing the information that has been shared publicly,” a spokesperson for the Santa Monica police told the BBC.
“I’m sorry for not saying anything sooner I’ve just been in shock,” Emiru later posted on X. “I was streaming with Rae and Cinna last night and a man asked for my phone number. I turned him down, and he started following our group and threatening to kill us.
“I wish I could say this was some kind of one-in-a-million incident, but the truth is, it is not. This is what life is like for girls. I hope if anything, people see what happened and realize how much of a reality it is for women and content creators as a whole.”
“We are all OK and have been with police,” said Valkyrae, explaining the group had decided to just end the subathon. “No means no. You’re not entitled to anybody. The fact that this man threatened our lives after being rejected while we were in a group, in public and live on-stream just shows the harsh reality women live in. This happens off-camera to women all the time.”
Valkyrae is angered by commentators “accusing my friends and I for faking this and blaming us instead of questioning the man’s behavior … some men will hate women and blame women no matter the situation.”
Cinna said on a later stream with Valkyrae that the clip circulating online “does not do it justice for how scary it was… It is an attempt on our life and we are taking it very seriously. He said he was going to kill us, he kept trying to get something out of his pocket. We had to run into a store screaming that somebody was going to kill us.”
Cinna has subsequently shared a message asking for the internet sleuths to stay away from trying to identify the individual and leave it up to police. “We don’t want a false match to cause harm to anyone and want to make sure we take the precautions to find the guy the right way,” said Cinna on X. “We are getting the police a ton of info and also making sure we can press maximum charges.
“Don’t even feel like I have to say this but holy fuck some of you are terrible human beings and having to be harassed for this while we’re in absolute shock at an attempt on our lives is fucking insane.
“It sucks that a marathon that was to highlight women streamers is unfortunately ending up on one of the worst things that can happen to a female streamer. We’re very thankful it didn’t end with one of us getting seriously hurt.”
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Kurt Indovina
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