“This is going to be a f–king movie,” internet star Kai Cenat said during a Twitch stream days before his Lower Manhattan meet and greet turned into a riot on Aug. 4.
Union Square played host to the influencer’s giveaway, which turned into violent unrest on Friday, leaving 65 people arrested and the organizer slapped with inciting a riot.
Two days after madness descended upon Manhattan’s town square, the New York City Police Department is left to piece together what exactly caused the mayhem to ensue.
Here is a timeline of how a gaming giveaway turned into anarchy on the streets of the Big Apple.
1:30 p.m.: Crowd begins to form
According to NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, the police department became aware of a large crowd of teens assembling in Union Square in hopes of meeting Twitch and YouTube sensation Kai Cenat. Sources familiar with the investigation say that youngsters came from both around the city and out of state to join the 21-year-old Twitch streamer, who has 6.5 million followers on the platform, after he promised to give away highly sought after gaming equipment and consoles, such as the PlayStation5.
Cenat, along with his fellow streamer, Fanum, posted a six-hour video titled “Huge announcement” on their Twitch Stream, where they publicized a giveaway of an assortment of gaming gear to be held at Union Square, across the street from Whole Foods at 4 p.m. Calling it “Operation Stream,” the duo prompted their millions of followers to attend, acknowledging that it was going to be an enormous crowd with well over 1,000 people.
“You don’t got no excuse, all trains go here,” Cenat said on the stream while sharing a Google Street view of Union Square.
“We not gonna fit, we run deep,” Fanum said, laughing as they both speculated how many people would show up. The two mentioned that anywhere from 500 to 10,000 fans could be there.
“The NYPD is gonna be on d-ck. NYPD gonna pull up but f–k it, bro. This gonna…
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