Police are searching for a Downtown Brooklyn resident and popular Youtube video game streamer who disappeared June 19 after posting an online video in which he discussed committing suicide and referenced his own struggle with mental illness.
“I wasn’t suicidal before, but one thing I didn’t realize was the walls were closing around me so fast. I really had no intention of killing myself, but I would always push it too far. I guess I am mentally ill,” Desmond Amofah said in a June 19 video that Youtube later deleted, but which pro-gamer Rod Breslau preserved on Twitter.
Amofah, who posted videos of himself playing video games on the popular streaming site under the handle “Etika,” was last heard on a phone call at 8 p.m. June 19, cops said.
Earlier this year, police barricaded the block surrounding Amofah’s Willoughby Street home between Lawrence and Bridge street on April 26, after the streamer threatened to kill himself amid a rambling, anti-Semitic social media tirade, writing “I fear nothing,” “f— the Jews,” — which he later deleted — “f—-t,” and calling himself a “god.”
The streamer, who also posted an image of himself pointing a gun at the camera, later filmed police as they stormed his apartment behind the cover of a bullet-proof shield, and smiled as paramedics wheeled him to a waiting ambulance as he lay bound to a gurney.
“We made it,” Amofah had shouted, while a crowd of about 50 bystanders cheered him on.
Amofah was hospitalized on a prior occasion after threatening to shoot himself in a separate Twitter post on April 16, according to Newsweek.
Police described Amofah as 29 years old, approximately 6 feet tall and 160 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.
The public can phone their tips to (800) 577-8477, log into the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdc
All calls are strictly confidential.
If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide, do not leave the person alone; remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs, or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt; call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273–8255; and take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.
