YouTube Star Adam22 Threatened With Gun During Livestream

Adam22, the host of a popular hip-hop podcast, was threatened at gunpoint on Sunday night, with a video livestream capturing the altercation.

The YouTube star, whose real name is Adam Grandmaison, was hosting a No Jumper podcast video livestream from his studio on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles when an armed robber appeared in the corner of the video frame and pointed a gun at Grandmaison’s head.

A clip of the altercation shared to Twitter shows a man’s arm reaching into the frame with a gun, pointing it at Grandmaison and shouting, “Give me all your f—ing money!”

Grandmaison blocks his face with his hands and pushes the gun away, giggling, and is pulled out of his seat and away from the camera’s shot. Off screen, it sounds as if someone overpowers the gunman.

In another video shared to Twitter, a man identified as the gunman lies on the ground as the videographer kicks him and curses at him. Someone can be heard calling the police.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told Motherboard that the suspect was arrested for attempted robbery with a gun at the Melrose Avenue address, which is the location of Grandmaison’s bike shop and podcast studio. Police did not specify whether the gun was real or fake.

Grandmaison took to social media to address the incident. “They tried to kill me lmao,” he wrote on Instagram. “If I got shot tonight my dying words would have been something about how Shane Dawson didn’t j— on a cat,” he wrote on Twitter, referencing his conversation at the time about fellow YouTuber Shane Dawson’s 2015 joke about being sexually involved with his cat.

However, in response to Sunday’s incident, some followers have begun to question its validity, questioning why a gunman would rob the podcaster during an on-air stream.

“Nobody with a gun runs in your room and says ‘you wanna go right now?’ Lmao,” one Twitter user wrote.

“This @adam22 bulls— fake as hell man, c’mon now,” someone else said.

Many have pointed out how it’s confusing how the gunman would have gotten into the recording booth without being stopped by security. One user suggested that security may have been on a break.

“If I was Adam22; I’d fire my whole entire staff ASAP. How tf does a dude rob you mid interview?!?! F—er shouldn’t even be in the building. Terrible awareness,” they wrote.

Another suggested Grandmaison was “out for money.”

Someone else implied he staged the incident to benefit his ratings. “@adam22 had to think of something up [right quick] he was taking a heavy tank in the game and he executed.”

But Grandmaison was adamant that the situation was legitimate. “[Shut the f— up] about that clip being fake, if you need proof, at least 1 journalist has confirmed it with the police,” he tweeted Tuesday with a link to Motherboard, who spoke with police who said an arrest was made in the incident.

Photo credit: Rodin Eckenroth / Contributor / Getty