JoJo Siwa said that her home was 'swatted' following her coming out livestream
JoJo Siwa, the 17-year-old pop star who came out as a member of the LGBTQ community earlier this week, said in an Instagram livestream that she had been "swatted," with police responding to a call about an alleged incident at her home in Los Angeles, California.
The incident occurred on Saturday, following a livestream on her personal Instagram in which Siwa said that she was the happiest she's "ever been" after coming out. Footage uploaded by YouTube channel TRQFFIC appears to show Siwa, wearing the same hoodie she appeared in during her own livestream, and members of her family standing among police officers and vehicles outside of a home.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to Insider that officers had responded to a block on Saturday afternoon that appears to match the home shown in the footage, and found no evidence of trouble.
"Swatting" is the act of calling the police on an innocent person under false pretenses, claiming that the swatting victim is a hostile criminal with the goal of startling them, harming them, or leading to their arrest when police arrive at their residence. Since 2015, it has been a federal crime in the United States. Livestreamers and celebrities have been frequent victims of swatting in the past.
Siwa opened up about the experience in an Instagram livestream hosted on her videographer Nate Javier's account.
"Basically what happened is we were at our house and all of a sudden there was a whole bunch of police that were telling us to come outside the house and we didn't know why," Siwa said during the livestream. "We went outside hands up... and then the police were saying that somebody had called and made a claim and then all of a sudden paparazzi came from around the corner."
Siwa said during the stream that she believed that the media had called the police in order to force her to leave her home following her coming out, which made waves online last Friday after she posted a photo of herself wearing a shirt that said "best gay cousin ever."
Read more: JoJo Siwa's apparent coming out inspired an outpouring of support
"Since I recently came out to the internet... the media is obviously very excited, which I love, and I love the support," she said. "However, you know, you could have just hung out outside my house and I would have eventually come outside."
She went on to call the incident "really scary," and said that initially, she thought that someone may have been in her home or was hiding in the vicinity. Recent Instagram story posts show Siwa quarantining with her mother at a hotel in Canada, where she said that she's working until mid-March.
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