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Two Guys in California Periscoped Their Gun Crime and Got Arrested

Now there can be hysterical local news stories about the supposed dangers of Periscope.

Mugshots in thumbnail via Sacramento Police Department

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Everything from Mortal Kombat, to planking, to selfies has received a boost from news coverage telling parents it's a new trend that's going to kill their kids. That kind of thing might not have seemed possible for Periscope, since it's just a live streaming app that allows you to broadcast events to your social media followers, but, on Wednesday night of last week, two guys drove around Sacramento brandishing a gun on Periscope, possibly giving the service some street cred at long last.

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The two guys, Damon Batson, and Carlos Gonzalez, said they were on their way to rough someone up when they switched on the app and started broadcasting. Gonzalez explained into the camera that one of their girlfriends was "supposedly gonna do it in the crib"—referring to some guy across town they thought she was fucking. So they decided to "ride over there and see what we can do."

They developed a following. Occasionally, as they drove around talking vaguely about hurting someone, viewers hit "fav," on the app, and little purple and pink hearts materialized.

They were carrying a handgun, but if there'd been a murder, it apparently wouldn't have been shown. Gonzalez explained to his viewers that he unfortunately couldn't periscope everything. However, If I didn't think I would get in trouble with the law, fuck it," he said.

In the end, they don't seem to be the 2015 version of the bad guys in the movie 15 Minutes, because no one got hurt. In the video, there is footage of the pair knocking on the guy's front door and saying, "Stop being a scaredy. Open that door. Tell that fucking whore to come out," but after they climb onto his balcony, they see that, to the disappointment of the viewers at home, either no one's inside the house, or the lovebirds are hiding under the bed.

Either way, they left, and someone asked them to prove their gun was real. So Gonzalez can be heard firing the gun in the air.

Later that night when the police found out about the footage and arrested them, Gonzalez got booked for alleged negligent discharge of a firearm, and for being in public with a loaded firearm. The charges against Batson mostly stemmed from some weed plants he showed off in the video. He was also charged with knowingly receiving stolen property, and for having a gun while in possession of weed.

Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.