By: Qinwei Wu

Kai Cenat, an online influencer, will be facing multiple charges.

An Instagram story posted by Kai Cenat announced that he would be hosting a giveaway at the Union Square Park on August 4th, at 4 pm. By 1:30 pm, 300 people had already gathered, and even more were starting to arrive. Once 3 pm rolled around, a thousand of people were already at the Union Square Park.

Cenat was going to giveaway PlayStation 5 consoles, and the limited amount of consoles caused a riot, causing several injuries and arrests. Eventually, police had to remove Cenat for safety reasons.

Jeffrey Maddrey, the New York Police Department’s highest-ranking uniformed officer, said in a news conference later that day that Cenat “is going to be charged with multiple counts: At least two counts of incitement to riot, unlawful assembly and a few other charges.”

New York Police arrested 65 people, including 30 minors. Two police officers and four civilians were taken to the hospital in ambulances after the riot. Another officer suffered a broken hand.

“I personally saw other people leaving here with their heads split open, you know, cuts, bruises, lacerations,” Maddrey said, adding that he also had been hit on the head.

The giveaway was a collaboration with the Bronx YouTube star Fanum, who helped Cenat get to where he is now. Cenat holds the record for most monthly subscribers on Twitch, with 300,000 subscribers in February and 6.5 million followers. His amount of monthly subscribers is more than most US newspapers!

Since 2021, Twitch has banned Cenat several times for many different violations, including showing explicit images, threatening other users, along with streaming under the influence.

During a short stream near Union Square on August 4th, Cenat boasted he was going to give out $100 gift cards. This resulted in complete chaos. Cenat himself stated, “We’re not going to do nothing until it’s safe… Everybody for themselves, because it’s a war out there, man.”

When Cenat got out of his car seconds later, he was swarmed by his fans, and the stream ended as bodyguards were pushing people away from him.

Maddrey said the crowd was throwing paint cans, bottles, rocks, other carrying shovels, axels, and other tools from nearby construction sites. Some went as far as lighting fireworks as one or two police offices were removed from the crowd from their injuries. By 5 pm, police dispersed the crowd, and by 6 pm, most of the crowd was gone.