The noise-cancelling headphones Joshua Peters, 27, wears while playing the popular browser games Clash of Clans and Runescape for almost 60,000 followers on the live streaming site Twitch mean that he did not hear 10 armed police enter his house.

Viewers of the stream realised what was happening the same time as Peters, when his mother’s voice was picked up by the microphone as she called to him about the arrival of the officers. They watched as confusion flickered across his face, before turning to concern, and he exited stage right.

Peters, who goes by Koopatroopa787 on Twitch, returned to the screen 15 minutes later, visibly shaken and on the verge of tears, to confirm for the remaining viewers that he had been “Swatted”.

‘Pointing their gun’

An anonymous caller to the St Cloud Police Department in Minnesota, where Peters has lived since returning from a tour of duty with the US Air Force in Kuwait, had claimed to live at his address.

The caller, he told viewers later, had said that someone “had shot their roommate and now they were pointing their gun at them”. Then on the phone call, the police heard “two gun shots” before the call ended.

The practice, known as “Swatting”, is intended to cause the dispatch of armed police to the target’s house. In Peters’ case, it worked.

The aim is typically only to scare the victim, but in practice the attackers risk much more. The more hyperbolic the threats made on the call, the more likely the police will take an aggressive stance in response. Swat teams in the past have shot and killed a man who called a suicide hotline, thrown a stun grenade in a baby’s cot, and killed more than one family dog.

Before ending the show, the streamer turned back to the audience, and addressed his attacker. “I see you posting my address. I had police point a gun at my little brothers because of you. They could have been shot, they could have died. Because you chose to swat my stream. I don’t give a shit about what you have against me, or what I did to you. For that I am at a loss for words. Your gripe is with me. But do not involve my family in this. They don’t deserve it.”

Speaking to the Guardian the day after the attack, Peters said he had no idea why he was targeted. “There’s no possible persons who I can think would do something like this to me … I’ve seen this happen to other streamers, I just never thought I would be the one to get randomly targeted. Never.

“My channel’s not crazy big, like some of these other mainstream streamers. I just didn’t expect that. I was going upstairs, and before I knew it, my face was on a tile on the ground, hands wide open and a bunch of police officers with assault rifles.”

Although St Cloud police confirmed that Peters was the first Swatting target the city had seen, the officers were aware of the concept, so he was able to defuse the situation.

‘I just didn’t expect this’

“When we were all laying down, I spoke out. I said ‘I stream on Twitch.TV, I’m being Swatted, and someone probably prank-called this’. And then the tone shifted as soon as I said ‘I’m streaming on Twitch.TV.’”

However, the situation was not quite over. A few hours later, the attacker tried again, calling the same police department and pretending to be a member of Peters’ family. This time, the lie was that he was despondent and suicidal over the danger he had exposed his family to. Thankfully, the police knew to check rather than responding in force again.

For Peters, who was flown back from his tour of duty in a medical evacuation, it was a terrifying invasion into a part of his life where he feels secure and happy. “There’s not a lot of things that can get me emotional in this world … but it’s been a process getting back in my feet. Today was the first day where everything went smoothly, it was very energetic, everything was going well in my stream, and then it’s like, once again: here is another hurdle to overcome.

“And this is way worse than anything else I’ve had to overcome. It was like … gosh, let’s go back to the other areas I had to deal with, they were much more manageable. I’m the oldest of four brothers, and to know that a gun was pointed at my little brother? That hits home for me.”

St Cloud police department confirmed that an investigation to find Peters’ attacker was underway, but Peters said that there were no clear suspects.