American comedian Doug Stanhope has spoken out after seemingly being arrested after police officers seemingly raided his home during a livestream.
Stanhope was livestreaming on Instagram from his home in Brisbee, Arizona, on Wednesday, August 28th when the arrest occurred.
Just after a short period on-stream, a set of officers stormed his residence, announced they had a warrant and entered.
Stanhope was escorted out of the residence, forced to move towards the cops with his hands up while on his knees. Another man was ordered out a short while later and the livestream was prematurely ended.
A snippet of the livestream during the arrest made its way to X (formerly Twitter), shared by the user Shroomfactory.
“Did Doug Stanhope just get raided and arrested live on Instagram?” they captioned the video.
Watch video below…
Did Doug Stanhope just get raided and arrested live on Instagram?@DougStanhope #DougStanhope pic.twitter.com/dlfmz62vr9
— Shroom Factory (@ShroomFactory) August 28, 2024
The incident has left fans of the comic great confused. While some are worried over the arrest, others think it’s nothing but a prank and that things should be sorted out soon.
“His Aussie manager smiling gave away the bit. Still really good tho lol,” one skeptical fan wrote on the r/dougstanhope subreddit.
However, others disagreed and thought it looked legit, scary and frankly, ominous.
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“Yeah… if he was not actually arrested, I think he would have gotten back on IG and explained what happened. It’s been hours and no news. That tells me that they actually searched his house and he got booked. Unbelievable,” a second fan wrote.
Stanhope speaks
Following the story kicking up an online ruckus, Doug Stanhope came out to clarify the situation, revealing that the raid was a training exercise by officers of the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team.
Stanhope explained via a video that while he had coordinated with the County Sheriff’s office, being on IG Live when they arrived turned the experience into a global frenzy that the cops had not intended it to be.
Doug graciously gave GhanaCelebrities.Com credit for breaking the news in the video which he shared on his Patreon.
Meanwhile, TMZ reports the exercise was to aid the SWAT team in “honing their tactics, processes, and various other measures during the training,”
Douglas Gene Stanhope is an American stand-up comedian, actor and podcast host born March 25, 1967 in Worcester, Massachusetts.
He began his career in the 90s by performing during open mic nights at a Las Vegas bar.
After honing his act on many rough nights, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona where he started working at a comedy club. He later moved to Brisbee where he still resides with his partner, Amy ‘Bingo’ Bingaman.
He hosts the Doug Stanhope podcast and has released many comedy specials as well as authored several books.