YouTuber Zhoie “Furry Potato” Perez was shot in the leg on Thursday by a Los Angeles security guard live on an IRL stream.
Furry was walking around Etz Jacob Congregation, a Jewish synagogue in Beverly Hills that also houses Ohel Chana High, an all-girls school.
The entire encounter was captured across two videos, the first of which has since been deleted. The deleted video supposedly showed Furry being addressed by an armed security guard working at the synagogue. As the guard stood behind a metal gate and Furry walked back and forth on the sidewalk, she was questioned why she was recording. After Furry offered a non-answer, the guard reportedly threatened to shoot if she moved.
In the second video of the altercation, which is still available on her channel, the guard is seen shifting his weight back and forth with a pistol drawn and his right trigger finger resting on the body of the firearm. A few minutes pass until the guard appears to say, “get out of the way,” while stepping forward. Only seconds later, the guard fires a round and Furry shouts in pain.
As the 38-minute archived stream progresses, Furry is questioned by Los Angeles police officers and eventually carried into an ambulance where she shows the stream a bullet wound on her right leg (viewer discretion is advised).
Police released Furry and determined she had done nothing wrong. Furry was discharged from the hospital on the same day.
Furry is a self-described “First Amendment Auditor,” who uses her channel to test the limits of her constitutional rights. She records personal details like license plates and close ups of strangers’ faces, and engages in potentially contentious interactions, making her a polarizing personality on the platform.
In previous videos, Furry has been pepper sprayed at an Islamic center, had her camera stolen at a defense contractor’s office, and has had security and police called on her countless times. The oldest video available on her channel is from February 2018.
The security guard was later identified as Edduin Zelayagrunfeld, 44, who was arrested for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Zelayagrunfeld was wearing a uniform and badge representing Stealth Protection and Security, a licensed private patrol operator in California. Dot Esports was unable to reach Stealth Protection to confirm the status of Zalayagrunfeld’s employment.
Someone posting from the Furry Potato Live YouTube account left a lengthy comment underneath the video addressing a plethora of points, including Furry’s thoughts on the incident:
“This was one lone security guard, he said it was a warning shot. He shot through the gate at an unarmed person. I believe the shot hit the gate and fragmented to its inertia was dampened by the gate impact.” The full comment can be seen underneath the YouTube video.
Ohel Chana High principal Yehudis Farkash told press Thursday night that the school had already called police to the campus prior to the shooting. Farkash said the students and staff were on high-alert because, “the individual was filming our girls at the school and the building, the perimeter of the building extensively, including all the windows and the exits.”
At the time of writing, Furry’s two YouTube channels, Furry Potato and Furry Potato Live, have 18,200 and 4,400 subscribers, respectively.
