Dennis Romero
Cops surrounded the Southern California home of the teenager behind the viral “Damn Daniel” video today, Riverside police Lt. Christian Dinco said.
It was the result of a hoax or, in more contemporary parlance, a swatting, he said.
In fact, SWAT officers did respond to the Riverside home of the video maker, in the 6000 block of Hamilton Drive, at 1 a.m., Dinco said. (The name of the youth was not revealed.)
“We had a call to our dispatch center reporting that the caller had shot his mother in the head with an AK-47,” he told us. “We responded out to the house, surrounded it and ultimately determined it was a hoax or prank call after removing the family from the house.”
Damn, Daniel.
It wasn't officially a SWAT call-out, Dinco said, but a few SWAT officers did respond.
“We had a lot of police resources to resolve it,” he said. “After talking to the family they said they had reason to believe that it may be associated with a YouTube video they posted titled 'Damn Daniel.'”
Now detectives are trying to track down the caller.
“They could be arrested,” the lieutenant said. “It is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine. If anyone was injured, it could have been a felony.”
“Damn Daniel” is a Vine video series about Riverside area high school students, including Daniel Lara, and their shoes.
Lara is shown wearing white Vans. Someone off-camera says, “Damn, Daniel, back at it again with the white Vans.”
A pair of “Damn Daniel”–themed white Vans has been bid up into the six figures on eBay, the New York Daily News reports.
Credit: Hi Humor/YouTube
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