Popular YouTube provocateur Fousey called the police on himself during a livestream, leading to an altercation with police in a hotel room
On Wednesday, Fousey (whose real name is Yousef Erakat) streamed himself calling 911 claiming he was being stalked.
The stream ended after cops arrived on the scene and led him away in handcuffs.
The Miami Police Department couldn't confirm why Erakat was taken away.
Yousef Saleh Erakat, best known as the YouTuber Fousey, appeared to call 911 and then get taken away by police officers in a hotel room in Miami during a livestream Wednesday morning.
While it's unclear what happened after the stream ended, the Miami Police Department told Insider a man who called them from a hotel room around the same time was transported to the hospital for a mental evaluation thereafter. The police department said they could not confirm whether the man was Erakat due to HIPAA laws. (TMZ reported on Wednesday that Erakat was indeed transported by police to the hospital for a mental health check.)
The situation unfolded after Erakat, who has 10.4 million subscribers on YouTube, had spent the day on the gaming and livestream platform Kick. It was day 12 of a subathon, or a marathon streaming event for creators to grow subscribers over consecutive days. His streams had taken an aggressive turn on Tuesday, when he got into arguments with multiple other creators and had expressed on air that he'd become increasingly concerned about being stalked, per Dexerto.
Early after midnight on Wednesday, Erakat called police from the InterContinental Hotel in Miami while sitting in a room with his security guard. On the call, which can be seen in a recording of the livestream, he complained about a stalker who he claimed was calling him and his mother with threats that his life was "in danger."
He urged the operator to send cops, but when they sounded confused, he started yelling obscenities and that he had a gun to his head and was in immediate danger.
—ryan 🤿 (@scubaryan_) August 23, 2023
Ten minutes later, the stream showed police arriving at his hotel room and asking him what was going on. The YouTuber proceeded to tell them he was receiving death threats and was concerned that he was going to be killed by a stalker. When officers ask him more follow-up questions, Erakat begins aggressively berating the officers, calling them "dumb as fuck" repeatedly.
The stream then shows police putting handcuffs on him and taking him away.
When reached, a spokesperson for the Miami Police Department confirmed an incident occurred that matched the details of the livestream incident. While they declined to name Erakat so as to not violate HIPAA protections, they said a male subject was then transformed to a local hospital for a mental evaluation.
"Miami Police received a call from a male subject who called to report alleged threats being made with weapons," The Miami PD told Insider in an email statement. "Upon police arrival, contact was made with a male subject on scene at a hotel room and after a thorough investigation surrounding the subjects claims was conducted - officers transported the male to the hospital for a mental evaluation and documented the details."
Police added that an investigation is ongoing.
Online, fans who watched the incident occur live, and then in clips posted to X, (formerly Twitter), expressed grave concern for the YouTuber's wellbeing. "Okay, I watched more of the Fousey stream," a user wrote. "Now I'm less convinced it's a character & I'm more concerned about his mental health." On Tuesday, viewers also clipped parts of his livestream where he's seen getting out of his car in the middle of a highway and running through traffic.
Insider reached out to Erakat's team for comment.
Read the original article on Insider