The Timcast Cast Castle was swatted while livestreaming Thursday night’s episode of IRL just before 8:30 p.m.
A “swatting” is when a person calls in a fake police report, usually claiming there was a murder or active shooter, in an attempt to get a SWAT team to raid someone’s home or business.
Well this happened pic.twitter.com/DgzqGrvc29
— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) January 7, 2022
In this case, the caller, who used the name “Nicholas Bell,” claimed that he had shot his wife at Tim Pool’s studio address and was about to kill himself.
UPDATE: Someone made a fake police report that there was an active shooter at Tim Pool’s studio and that 2 people had been killed. Police burst in live on air pic.twitter.com/oM6pfUkbhd
— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) January 7, 2022
According to law enforcement at the scene, the person had called police departments in two different counties – neither of which was correct for the studio’s town. Officers also said that he called a suicide hotline to make the report.
Someone called Police and said they shot and killed two people and were going to kill more
Police were told not to enter without a warrant but said they didn’t need one due to exigent circumstances.
This is a large house used as a production studio with many employees on site https://t.co/VDveCal4TE
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) January 7, 2022
The calls to various counties led to officers from at least three departments, including the state police, being present at the scene.
The vlog team happened to be outside when officers from the first two counties arrived. After complying with orders to put their hands up, they were able to deescalate the situation to some degree.
Looks like multiple jurisdictions and A LOT of Police officers responded to the house today after someone tried to SWAT us.
Luckily nothing bad happened everything is ok because one of the house mates was outside and was able to stop things from escalating.
— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) January 7, 2022
Others at the house informed officers from the first two counties that they were not permitted to enter the property without a warrant. However, when law enforcement from the appropriate department arrived, they said they were entering without one due to “exigent circumstances.”
Someone at the studio once again attempted to say that they could not enter without a warrant, but three officers walked right past her and into the building, saying that they had to “due to the nature of the call.”
Once they were inside, members of the vlog team attempted to stop the officers from entering the studio but were unsuccessful.
Police also checked with the neighbors, though they did not search their homes.
According to those who were present, the whole ordeal was very quick. They said that they did not see officers draw their weapons at any point.
Cops got call at 8:20pm, arrived 8:27pm
Security camera footage time isn’t adjusted for daylight savings
At least 8 vehicles, several different jurisdictions
If it wasn’t for our CTO going outside and calming things down it would have been bad pic.twitter.com/0P8RJzYPD1
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) January 7, 2022
Swatting is a highly dangerous crime that has led to several deaths in recent years.
In July 2020, a 60-year-old grandfather in Tennessee died after having a heart attack while being swatted over his Twitter handle.
In 2019, Tyler Rai Barriss, 26, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he swatted 28-year-old Andrew Finch in Kansas.
Barriss had told police that he was inside the house and had hostages. When Finch opened the door and stepped on to his porch he was fatally shot by police, who said that they believed he was reaching for a weapon.
UPDATE: Full video of the incident has been posted to the Cast Castle YouTube channel.
