Kai Cenat, a famous Twitch streamer, told his fans that they could win free PlayStation 5 consoles at 4 p.m. on Friday in Union Square. However, the giveaway turned into chaos when tens of thousands of people rushed the area to try to be one of the lucky winners. Police said it was hard to keep track of the thousands of people who gathered in parks and even on the roads.
Kai Cenat has now been charged with a number of crimes, such as illegal gathering and starting a riot.
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So, arrests have been made, but the New York Department still can’t say how many people have been arrested or may have been hurt. ABC7 says that a large group of people threw things at police officers, forcing most of them to hide behind cars and hold pieces of plywood. Some people in the crowd even threw paint cans and other tools, and a few even climbed up the George Washington Statue.
Kai Cenat put a picture of overhead footage of the crowd on his Instagram Story before he was taken into custody.
“The post went viral around 3 p.m., and thousands of people started to show up at Union Square.” People soon filled up the park and the streets around it. They were getting in the way of cars and people walking, said New York Police Chief Jeffrey Maddrey. “After getting a lot of warnings and being attacked with rocks, bottles, and other things, we started making arrests to clean up the park.”
According to USA Today, Maddrey said that the department will work to find ways to stop this from happening again. He also said, “Most of it was in the park.” Young people were throwing things at each other in the park. Everyone was dancing. They did a lot of different things, but they hurt each other while they did them. We have seen things like this before, but they have never been this dangerous.
Maddrey went on, “Young people wouldn’t do what we told them. They were fighting and hurting each other, and then they turned their attacks on us.’ But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that after thousands of people skipped a stop near Union Square Park, all subway trains were working. Kai Cenat has been making content for a long time, but he is best known for streaming games, pranks, and funny responses on Twitch.