Etika 1990-2019
Daniel Desmond Amofah (May 12, 1990 – June 19, 2019), better known as his online alias Etika, was an American YouTuber and live-streamer.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Amofah started using YouTube to broadcast his gaming and reaction streams in 2012. By 2019, he had over 800,000 followers between his YouTube and Twitch.tv channels. Amofah's content had been described as Nintendo-focused. In November 2016, two videos of Amofah's where he purported to have a Nintendo Switch console before its 2017 release were scrutinized by fans; the model he was using was 3D-printed by YouTuber Sandqvist at Etika's request.
In June 2017, Amofah revealed himself to be the victim of multiple 'fake donations', or 'chargebacks' of large amounts of money sent to his PayPal account via stream donations, which would hit Amofah with hundreds of dollars in processing fees.
In 2018, he was banned from Twitch for using a homophobic slur during a stream.
Additionally in October 2018, Amofah wrote a cryptic message to social media that several of followers felt was suicidal in nature, and created a small panic. Amofah took to social media that evening to confirm his well-being, along with other streamers who professed to having seen him safe and sound in person, as to allay the followers' fears.
On April 16, 2019, Amofah tweeted that he was going to kill himself with a pistol he bought from a gun store in Long Island, which would lead to his arrest and hospitalization. Alice Pika, who had dated Amofah from 2011 to 2017, said he was fine, and that she had been "observing him all day". Days later, he posted a picture of himself holding a gun which Pika said was fake. On April 29, after tweeting various cryptic, anti-semitic, and homophobic messages, he blocked close friends of his. Later that day, he live-streamed himself getting detained by police to 19,000 viewers on Instagram Live. He was detained again that week for fighting a police officer.
Amofah went onto the YouTube channel DramaAlert for an interview in which he claimed he was the "antichrist" and that he wanted to "purge all life".
Amofah posted a YouTube video on June 19, 2019 at 12 AM, alluding to his suicidal thoughts. He was last heard from at 8 PM that night and was reported missing to the New York Police Department (NYPD). On June 22, his belongings were found on the Manhattan Bridge, including a backpack, wallet, laptop bag, cell phone, a change of clothes, and a Nintendo Switch console. On June 25, a body was found near where his belongings were found, about half a mile down the East River. NYPD recovered the body and confirmed it was Amofah. He was 29-years-old.