UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley has shared footage online of an armed police raid on his home after becoming the latest high-profile recipient of the so-called ‘swatting’ prank.
Swatting, for the uninitiated, refers to a situation where pranksters obtain the address of someone and call in a hoax emergency call to authorities, often prompting a response from armed police.
In footage shared online, O’Malley is livestreaming video games when he noticed police on his property. “I feel like instantly I kind of knew. Because I’ve heard about Adin (Ross) and the big big streamers getting swatted. People find out where they’re at, they call the cops and say something happened that obviously didn’t happen,” the UFC 135-pound champ said on the TimboSugaShow, as reported by Bloody Elbow.
“I peek my head out of the window to see cops and I think maybe it was something else, but then I see them on the intercoms and I see a bunch of cops and they shout, ‘Walk out with your hands up’, so I walk out. I was nervous but I was like, I’m just going to listen. I’ve got shotguns pointing at me from four different cops, I was just kind of nasal breathing.”
🚨NEW: UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley says his home in Arizona was swatted last weekend while he was live streaming, reveals he had several “shotguns” and “AR-15’s” pointed at him. 👀
“Went home, I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna stream today,’” O’Malley said on The… pic.twitter.com/NdR2TFqg1w
— Parry Punch (@ParryPunchNews) May 20, 2024
He added: “I just used it as meditation because it’s moments like those that bring you into the present so much, so I was just breathing. Someone called the cops and said there was an active shooter and two dead people in the house.
“I was sitting in the back of the cop car with handcuffs, and I was like, ‘Dude, that’s crazy. I had freedom five minutes ago, now I have none. Zero.’ I’m like, ‘F*ck, I didn’t even do anything wrong.’ They said I killed my parents or something like that. Yeah, they thought there was an active shooter inside, like, ‘Who is inside?’ I was like, ‘No, I was just gaming’.
“Someone called and said there was an active shooter inside, and two dead people in the house or something. Little f*ck, I wish we could find that little weasel that called them. They can’t find him. But it was crazy.”
