While many people have loved and played the classicCrash Bandicoot, some people are not so fond of the game’s sound and the noise of the people playing it, especially later at night when they are trying to go to sleep. However, one person went to drastic measures to get his neighbors to turn down thePlayStationgamers' volume, and one of the players was killed in the process.
While cases of police swatting have happened occasionally against popularTwitch streamersand skilled gamers, this scenario was much different than those. An upstairs neighbor just wanted the players to turn down the volume on the gamers (who were reportedly yelling while playing the game) and their playthrough ofCrash Bandicoot, but instead of asking them himself, he decided to get the police to turn down the noise instead.
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On May 21, the PhoenixPolice Departmentdispatched two officers after a call came into the 911 line. According to the caller, there was a verbal fight occurring at a nearby apartment, and he called back to say the fighting had escalated to a physical altercation. However, neither the police nor the dispatcher believed that those in the apartment were actually having a physical fight due to the caller’s own words. “It could be physical,” the caller told the dispatcher who picked up his second call. “I could say yeah if that makes anybody hurry on up. Get anybody here faster.”
With this information, two members of the Phoenix Police Department knocked on the door to Ryan Whitaker’s apartment door. Earlier in the week, Whitaker had been awoken to a knock on the door, so the police’s knocking had put him on edge. Because of this, he approached the door with his 9 mm gun, which is legal for him to do in the state of Arizona. When he opened the door, one of the officers saw the gun, and even though they both asked him to put the weapon down, they gave him no time to do so. He knelt to put down the gun, but it was not enough. Within 5 seconds of Whitaker opening his door to the cops, PhoenixPolice OfficerJeff Cooke shot the man in the back at least twice. Whitaker had just gone to his his daughter’s high school graduation, and he and his girlfriend Brandee Nees had been relaxing together “making salsa and playingCrash Bandicoot.” Nees also claims that the yelling was happening due to the game and not domestic violence.
While this interaction occurred much earlier this summer before the global protests against police brutality, other incidents have happened throughout the world, not just the United States. Many gaming companies are supporting the victims and survivors of these interactions.Twitch has removed the police emotefrom its streaming platform, andForniteno longer has police cars in the battle royale game.
