Twitch streamers receive death threats during live stream on Santa Monica Pier

Independent

07-03-2025

Three popular Twitch streamers managed to flee a stalker who threatened to kill them before chasing them along Santa Monica Pier in California while they were in the midst of a livestream.
Cinna, 28, Valkyrae, 33, and Emiru, 27, who are watched by millions on a range of social media platforms, were hosting a week-long marathon stream in California on Sunday evening.
Things took a bad turn when a man suddenly became persistent, demanding one of the girl's phone numbers, and started issuing threats when she refused, despite innocently posing for a selfie moments before.
The Santa Monica Police confirmed they were investigating the chilling incident after it was captured on one of the online star's livestreams.
'Let's take a picture', the man suggests, while the three streamers laugh and pose for the photo. One of the girls is then heard candidly remarking how 'sweet' the fan was.
Later, the young man, who changed into a new outfit at this stage in the stream, then asks for Emiru's number.
She quickly reacts, telling the man, 'I don't have a phone' and begins nervously walking away.
The man persists and asks her to put her number into his phone.
A panicked Emiru, real name Emily Schunk, says: 'I don't know how to use a phone – I'm sorry!'
But the man, who introduced himself as Russell, fails to acknowledge the rejection and states: 'Wait, wait, wait – I'm just going to keep following her.'
At that point, Cinna interjects, screaming to the man: 'You're going to have to get in line, there's too many stalkers!'
Brittany Lynn Watts, who goes under the moniker of Cinna, has nearly 600K followers on Twitch, was named best female streamer at the Streamer Awards last year.
The girls frantically start running away and 'Russell' is heard yelling: 'I'm going to kill you right now.'
Valkyrae, real name Rachell Marie Hofstetter, revealed they had informed Santa Monica police of the incident, who confirmed reports of an individual who had issued threats, according to the BBC.
The suspect reportedly managed to flee the pier and investigators are looking into surveillance and witness statements to understand 'the total picture', said Lt. Lewis Gilmour to Fox11 Los Angeles.
Speaking about the incident, a day later on X, Valkyrae, also revealed that the stalker 'reached into his pockets multiple times' prompting her to run.
She added: 'I'll never be out without a taser/pepper gun ever again, I'll never joke about being strong enough to handle being attacked again, and I'll always take threats like this seriously.'
In a statement Monday, Cinna described the ordeal as terrifying. 'We're very much in shock [...] that does not do it justice for how scary it was', she added.
According to the Department of Justice in 2023, statistics show that one in three women face stalking in their lifetimes – a statistic that is half as high for men.