YouTuber event draws hundreds of people, police to Kitchener park

Waterloo regional police say officers were swarmed and had to call for backup while trying to disperse a crowd of more than 300 people at Kitchener's Tremaine Park on Sunday.

The group was gathered to watch a basketball game hosted by K Showtime, a Toronto-based YouTuber with nearly 250,000 subscribers.

Area residents who spoke to CTV said they were shocked to see so many teens at the park.

“We saw cars everywhere,” said Silvana Galizia, who lives nearby. “We thought it was maybe a party, but then we noticed the crowd at the park.”

Galizia said it started around 6 p.m. and about 15 minutes later officers arrived.

“We were watching from the porch, and then all of a sudden people started running, and there were fights and the police showed up,” Galizia said.

Residents estimated seeing teenagers as young as 15-years-old at the gathering.

“I couldn’t believe it. There was like six to seven people deep right around the whole court, people coming and going,” said Rob Klein, a resident of the area.

Police said officers were called to Tremaine Park around 6:15 p.m. for reports of a large gathering.

According to police, many vehicles were parked along the roadway and blocking driveways.

“Several fights had broken out at that point and time, and officers moved in to arrest one particular individual,” public information officer Cst. Andre Johnson said.

That's when police said officers were swarmed by the crowd and had to call for backup to disperse the gathering.

Police said the man arrested has since been released, and no charges have been laid.

In a statement provided by K Showtime’s management, he said: “During my park takeover in Kitchener yesterday, there was a fight that broke out between some people in the crowd that were involved in their own incident. This had nothing to do with our basketball game. Don’t come to the park takeovers if you’re trying to fight other people, I have a lot of kids coming out to support and it is a place to inspire kids, to build a community, and enjoy competitive basketball. Hope everyone is safe.”

His management added: “K Showtime has played many games this summer in other cities without reports of violence, and that this was an isolated incident with those in the crowd.”