Boogie2988 Pointing a Gun

About

Boogie2988 Frank Hassle Gun Confrontation, also known as Boogie2988 Pointing a Gun, occurred on September 28th, 2020, at the residence of Steven "Boogie2988" Williams in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The event followed months of verbal confrontations between YouTubers Boogie2988 and Frank Hassle. Williams alleges that Hassle, who many accuse of being a well-known internet troll, harassed him for months, threatening to come to his house. When Hassle rang Boogie2988's doorbell and egged him to come outside, Williams opened the door with a gun in his hand. He fired a warning shot and pointed the gun at Hassle. Hassle left before police arrived. Numerous YouTubers, including Keemstar, who conducted interviews with both parties, weighed in on the altercation, while memes of Boogie2988 pointing the gun circulated online. In May 2021, a warrant was issued in Arkansas for Boogie's arrest due to the incident.

Background

According to Boogie2988, he had been the subject of abuse and harassment by Frank Hassle in the months leading up to the altercation. Boogie2988 says that Hassle blames him for the banning of Hassle's subreddit and YouTube page.^[7][9]

On September 26th, 2020, Frank Hassle tweeted^[8] a photograph of himself with a snake around his shoulders and wrote, "i’m in Fayetteville pussy @Boogie2988." The tweet received more than 3,100 likes and 280 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

The following day, Boogie2988 tweeted a video of a person ringing his doorbell (shown below). He claimed that the trespasser was working with Hassle.

pic.twitter.com/LqypBmLQel

— Steven Boogie2988 Williams (@Boogie2988) September 28, 2020

That night, Keemstar published a video of an excerpt from an interview he conducted with Boogie2988 and Hassle. During the interview, Boogie2988 threatens to kill Hassle if Hassle comes to his house (shown below).

This Boogie2988</a> vs <a href="https://twitter.com/FrankHassleYT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">FrankHassleYT interview was Insane!!! pic.twitter.com/TWCRmn5oaD

— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) September 28, 2020

On September 28th, 2020, rumors spread online that Boogie2988 fired a gun at someone on his property.^[4] Shortly after, Hassle tweeted a photograph of Boogie2988 pointing a gun. He added the caption, "i took the gun and made him suck it like a dick while the whole neighborhood watched."^[1] The tweet received more than 8,900 likes and 1,900 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Minutes later, he tweeted a photo of himself on Boogie2988's lawn with the caption "this is my house now bitch"(shown below, right).^[6]

Developments

Keemstar Video

A few hours later, YouTuber Keemstar, best known for his online web series Drama Alert, compiled footage of the altercation and background information into a video on the video-sharing platform StoryFire^[2] alongside a tweet showing the photo of Boogie pointing the gun.^[3] According to Keemstar, the event was the subsequent result of an ongoing fued between both YouTubers after Hassle had his YouTube account terminated and began harassing Boogie over it. Keemstar had also interviewed both YouTubers the previous day and revealed in later tweets the interview contained multiple threats.^[5]

Boogie's Statement

That day, Boogie2988 posted a video of the altercation and explained his side of the story. During the video, he refers to Frank Hassle as a "stalker," accusing him of threatening to harm him and other forms of harassment. He said that he warned Frank Hassle not to come on his property or he would be shot. The video of the altercation sees Frank Hassle using homophobic slurs against Boogie2988 and egging him to come outside and shoot him. The post received more than 227,000 views in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Image Macro Memes

Following the release of the photograph of Boogie2988 pointing the gun. Keemstar shared the image shortly after Frank Hassle. He wrote, "BREAKING we now have pic of @Boogie2988 pointing gun at @FrankHassleYT !!!! #DramaAlert." The post received more than 8,400 likes and 700 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left).

Throughout the day, people continued to share edits of the image (examples below, center and right). These include a number of image edits and image macro memes that mock Boogie2988's appearance and the situation.

Warrant Issued

On May 7th, 2021, the Washington County, Arkansas sheriff’s department issued a warrant for Boogie's arrest on their website,^[10] citing aggravated assault related to the September incident. According to the site, Boogie's bond was set at $5,000 (shown below).

On May 11th, Twitter^[11] user TheGatorGamer tweeted an image of the warrant and Arkansas sheriff's department site, resulting in the news trending on the platform. The tweet (seen below) received over 706 likes and 285 retweets in 15 hours.

Shortly after, Boogie then confirmed the news in a tweet posted to his Twitter^[12] account, thanking his supporters for sticking by him, adding that he couldn’t comment much more on the warrant “for obvious reasons.” The tweet (shown below) received over 2,000 likes and 100 retweets in 14 hours.

YouTuber Keemstar uploaded a video discussing the warrant to his Twitter^[13] around the same timeframe, accumulating over 111,000 views and 3,100 likes in 14 hours (seen below).

You better DEFEND Boogie2988 !!! https://t.co/APDKcHBQY0 pic.twitter.com/xDKK1MxFJD

— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) May 11, 2021

Frank Hassle also tweeted^[14] about the warrant that night, stating, “I hope he gets the help he needs.”

Search Interest

External References