Twitch streamer banned after shooting cameraman with a crossbow

Twitch streamer Reice ‘OfficialDuckStudios’ has been banned from the streaming platform after accidentally shooting his cameraman in the stomach with a crossbow during a livestream.

As Dexerto reports, Reice had apparently been doing target practice with the crossbow on stream when he began to wonder if the arrow would penetrate his door. In a clip which has now been removed from Twitch, Reice is seen heading behind one side of the door with the crossbow while his cameraman, Joey, waited at the other. After shooting the crossbow, Joey can be heard crying out in pain from the other side of the door.

Joey then showed his injury on stream - although the footage was blurred, he appeared to be bleeding from his stomach. One person can be heard saying that “it looks worse on the video”, while another stated that “it doesn’t look good”.

Following the stream, Reice tweeted: “Good stream boys. Playing it safe the rest of the night.” Not long after that, it was confirmed that the streamer had been banned - visiting his channel currently displays a message which reads: “This channel is currently unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.”

It’s not surprising that the streamer was hit with a ban given that Twitch holds such strict rules regarding “violence and threats” in content on the site. According to the official community guidelines: “Acts and threats of violence are counterproductive to promoting a safe, inclusive, and friendly community. Violence on Twitch is taken seriously and is considered a zero-tolerance violation, and all accounts associated with such activities on Twitch will be indefinitely suspended. For example, you may not show or promote: attempts or threats to physically harm or kill others, attempts or threats to hack, dox, DDOS, or SWAT others, use of weapons to physically threaten, intimidate, harm, or kill others, encouraging others to participate in acts that may harm others.”

Although it wasn’t Reice’s intention to shoot Joey, there’s no doubt that the stream would have still violated the “use of weapons” rule. It remains to be seen if his account will eventually be unbanned.