The popular Twitch streamer, Kai Cenat announced to his fans they could win free PlayStation 5 consoles at 4. p.m Friday in Union Square, but the giveaway resulted in chaos after thousands of people mobbed the location hoping to be a lucky winner. Police alleged they found it challenging to contain the thousands of people who took over parks and even the roads.
Kai Cenat is now charged and will face multiple criminal charges, including unlawful assembly and inciting a riot.
Accordingly, arrests have been made but the New York Department is still unable to provide the total of the detained or perhaps injured. The mass of people allegedly threw objects at officers requiring most to take cover behind cars and holding pieces of plywood, per ABC7. Some in the crowd even threw paint cans and other equipment while a few climbed up the George Washington Statue.
Before his arrest, Kai Cenat posted a photo of aerial footage of the crowd on his Instagram Story.
‘At approximately 3 p.m., the post went viral and thousands of people began to arrive at Union Square. Soon the park and the surrounding streets were overrun with people. They were obstructing vehicular and pedestrian traffic,’ New York Police Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said. ‘After numerous warnings and being assailed [and] hit with rocks, bottles, and other debris, we started to make arrests to clear out the park.’
Per USA Today, Maddrey insisted the department will work to find ways to prevent such occurrences in the future and added, ‘Most of it was within the park. The young people in the park were throwing objects at each other. They were dancing. They were doing a whole lot of stuff, but they were hurting each other while doing it. We have encountered things like this before but never to this level of dangerousness.’
Maddrey continued, ‘Young people would not listen to our commands. They were fighting each other; they were hurting each other and they were turning their attacks on us.’ However, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has said all subway trains were functioning after the thousands of people bypassed a stop near Union Square Park. Notably, Kai Cenat has been a content creator for years but is best known for streaming gameplay, pranks, and comedic reactions on Twitch.