Published , by Morgan Shaver
Published , by Morgan Shaver
Popular Twitch streamer and LGBTQ+ activist Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti has been left shaken up following a swatting incident last week during which she was arrested by Canadian police. As noted by Keffals in a YouTube video talking about the ordeal, someone impersonated her and made a variety of false statements in emails to “every city counselor" in London, Ontario saying she had killed her mother and was in possession of an illegal firearm with the intent to “go to City Hall and shoot every cisgender person there.”
Obviously all these statements are as outlandish as they are false, as emphasized by things like the use of Keffals’ deadname in the emails that were sent, but that didn’t stop Canadian police from proceeding with the swatting regardless. Adding to the absurdity of the situation, this isn’t the first time Keffals has been targeted as back on July 31, as reported by Kotaku, someone had previously impersonated her in a different, but similar set of threatening emails sent to Toronto politicians.
This was later identified as a “misleading swatting incident” by the sergeant of the Toronto police department. Unfortunately, even though there would be police records of that previous incident to reference, and it having happened only a few weeks prior, London Police Services still went ahead with treating the claims as if they were legitimate.
Keffals says that she was woken up in her home “by London Police Services pointing an assault rifle” in her face and was served with a search warrant. In that search warrant, police went looking for things like a handgun, ammunition, cartridges, a gun case, as well as cellphones and computers. The end result was Keffals’ computer that she livestreams from, and her fiance’s equipment, being seized by police.
Since the swatting incident, the police have not only failed to make up for terrorizing her for no reason, she remains a suspect in an investigation of a crime she did not commit, and has been locked out of her accounts as a result of said investigation.
This comes despite the fact that the police failed to find any weapons or weapon ammunition in Keffals’ home, and the fact that they directly questioned her mother, rendering email claims that she’d killed her mother completely and obviously false.
Keffals has since had to spend thousands to replace the devices that were taken by London Police Services, and given the lack of safety at her current location, is now seeking to move. With this, Keffals has launched a GoFundMe page seeking help with moving costs and legal fees.
The news of Keffals being swatted comes after the streamer had previously been banned from Twitch after she openly discussed the abuse she’d been receiving. Abuse which, as emphasized by recent news, has only continued to escalate.