Famous streamer and influencer Zavala (Zavala, 22) was the victim of a false report leading to swatting during a birthday party, triggering a commotion that forced hundreds to evacuate.
On the 8th (local time), the Daily Mail reported that a call claiming a bomb had been placed at the scene of Zavala's birthday party held on the night of the 5th at the Los Globos club in Silver Lake, California prompted police to rush to the scene.
At the time of the incident, the club was crowded with hundreds of fans and people gathered to celebrate Zavala's 22nd birthday. But the atmosphere changed abruptly when the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), responding to a report that someone inside the club had a bomb, burst onto the scene.
Police immediately evacuated everyone inside the club and secured the surrounding area. Fortunately, a thorough search did not find any suspicious devices, but the place that should have been a joyful celebration became a chaotic scene full of screams and confusion. In the process, a fight broke out and a person suffered an eye injury and received treatment.
This is not the first time Zavala has been targeted by such malicious false reports, known as swatting.
Just a month earlier, on March 11, Zavala was targeted by a false report claiming she was armed and threatening customers while live-streaming shopping with a 4-year-old fan at a mall. Heavily armed police at the SWAT level responded, the mall was locked down, and a tense situation nearly erupted. In an interview with the media at the time, Zavala said she was very frightened when police arrived carrying large guns.
After the incident, Zavala posted a photo taken at the club on her social media and wrote, "The chat told me to act crazy, so I really did. Thank you to everyone who celebrated my birthday," trying to appear upbeat. But fans' concern and anger are growing over the repeated malicious pranks.
Swatting is the dangerous act of falsely reporting a violent crime to public safety agencies to deploy a SWAT team to an innocent location. In the United States, it is treated as a serious crime beyond a prank, criticized for wasting police resources and weakening the response to actual emergencies.
Police are treating the case as a violation of false emergency reporting and are continuing the investigation, but no suspect has been identified yet.
[Photo] Zavala Instagram
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