Gunfight on the UES Caught on Podcast Live Stream
In the midst of a live podcast shortly before 3 a.m. on Oct. 18, Keanu Thompson, host of “KeanuCast,” caught the unmistakable sounds of gun shots on East 76th Street and Second Avenue that ended with a 32-year-old man shot in the leg.
| 19 Oct 2023 | 02:40
Keanu Thompson on air as she hears gunshots out her window. (
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Keanu Thompson’s initial reactions as she hears gunshots out her window while livestreaming. (
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Keanu Thompson in shock after witnessing gunshots outside her apartment in the Upper East Side. (
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In the midst of a phone call with a guest caller on molestation, Keanu Thompson, host of the “KeanuCast” podcast, flinched and dove to the ground to take cover as she heard nine gunshots outside the window of her Upper East Side apartment.
“I’m not sure what’s happening, but I hear something bad happening,” Thompson says on air.
As the livestream goes on, a woman is screaming in the background. Thompson says, “Oh my f***ing God, oh my f***ing God!” She then answers her ringing phone and says to her boyfriend on the line, “Did you hear that?...My windows open...I’m terrified,” as she starts to break down into tears.
Meanwhile, there are comments rolling in on the livestream as listeners could also hear the gunshots and screaming in the background.
“That s*** for real”
“No f***in’ way”
“LORD JESUS PROTECT KIKI NOW”
Thompson looked out the window of her apartment on Second Ave near 76th St. and saw the blood on the concrete. Her boyfriend advised her on the phone to end the stream, but she refuses, saying “it could be evidence.”
On the next livestream episode, Thompson recalled the harrowing events saying, “I don’t recognize gunshots, really, but they say when you hear a shooting, you know it.” She goes on to say, “I f***ing flinch when the toaster pops for Christ sake. Am I really hearing what I’m really hearing? Then when the screams came...”
Thompson explained that on Tuesday’s her friends and herself usually hang out at Iggy’s, a nearby bar, which is why she was very panicked, thinking it could have been one of her friends who were injured. Further exasperating her fear, Thompson had her window wide open at the time of the shooting.
According to Thompson’s friend, Joe, who was at the scene of the crime, there were two couples arguing which quickly escalated. The two women started fighting in the middle of the street and then two guys proceeded to fight when all of a sudden all she heard was, “pop, pop, pop.”
By the end of the stream, Thompson lights a cigarette and her boyfriend arrives at her apartment to get her out.
The NYPD told the NY Post that another man pulled out a gun and fired nine times, hitting a 32-year-old man in the left leg and his date got a cut on her face in the melee. The man is now in stable condition, the Post was told by the NYPD but the suspects, having left before the police arrived, have not been accounted for.
“The one time I wore devil horns,” Thompson remarked the following day on her livestream.