Blogger Rickey Yaneza was mugged and assaulted while streaming Pokémon Go in Central Park, New York City. Live footage of the attack was recorded on his channel on Twitch but it has now been suspended.
Half an hour after midnight, the blogger was allegedly attacked as he was running in Central Park in order to catch a Snorlax that was running free at the southeast entrance of Central Park which is the Grand Army Plaza which is the hotspot location for Pokémon.
In the video which was captured, Yaneza is attempting to catch a Seaking as an unidentified person approaches and suddenly pushes him to the ground. After this the blogger is punched and his three visible cell phones which were livestreaming the whole time were stolen. The assailant is then seen to be running away.
“He literally just sucker punched me,” Yaneza said over the phone. “My right jaw is swollen. He clotheslined me with his fist. I hit the ground. I have a bump on my head and a scratch on my elbow.”
Yaneza told the NY Police Department that after the assault, two bystanders helped him contact the PD and then he went to the nearest hospital. Kotaku confirmed the occurrence of this incident via a representative from the NYPD.
Since the whole scenario was being streamed live on Twitch, viewers in the chat of Yaneza saw the whole thing in disbelief and shock. According to them, the attacker had a headgear on so he could not be identified. But there are rumors that he was perhaps stalking the park in search of people playing Pokémon.
This stream was Yazena’s ninth stream ever and he said that once his Twitch channel is restored and his health recovers, he will resume streaming. So much for passion! He also said, “I might as well get something out of this,” considering he is on the way to license the footage of the attack so that he receives money from the publication of the video.
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