UFC Bantamweight Champion Sean O’Malley revealed how his quick thinking allowed him to escape from a swatting situation unharmed while in the middle of a Warzone stream on Twitch.
Swatting has been a major issue for years now. Streamers are often the target of these sometimes deadly pranks where the police are called to a house under the pretense that a serious crime, such as a murder, had been committed.
On Saturday, May 18, ‘Suga Sean’ was at home streaming some Call of Duty Warzone on Twitch when he noticed a cop flying down his road and immediately knew something was up.
Sean O’Malley explained the situation on his TimboSugarShow podcast, revealing that he had known from Adin Ross and other big streamers about how they’d been the victims of swattings in the past.
“So, I peek out my head out the window to see if maybe it’s something else. But then they’re on the intercom and I see a bunch of cops and they’re like, ‘Walk out with your hands up.’ So I f*ckin walk out, hands up,” he said.
The MMA fighter noted how he decided to be calm and follow instructions, adding that one wrong move could be fatal.
“I was like, ‘I’m just going to listen. I could get shot.’ I was like, ‘Okay, if I just listen to them, I’ll be all right.’ But you never know: Someone sneezes, pulls the trigger. I’ve got f**king shotguns pointed at me, ARs from like four different cops pointed at me. I was like, ‘I’m just going to listen and walk back.”
Sean revealed that he was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car, because the cops on the scene didn’t know who he was. Once in the car, he began to meditate, explaining how “moments like those bring you into the present moment so much.”
Eventually, a couple of other cops pulled up and who did know who he was, so it became clear that it was all a false alarm.
According to the champ, someone had called the police and claimed there was an active shooter in his house and that he had killed his parents.
“I wish we could find that little weasel that called,” O’Malley added. “They can’t find him. It was crazy. I had pizza that night. I earned it. I celebrated.”
Sean O’Malley is not the first big-name to be swatted on stream just in 2024 alone. In March, Jynxzi had to end his stream quickly after police arrived on the scene.
In the United States, swatting is a federal crime that can result in years in prison for the swatter.
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