Mizzy Bacari Ogarro: TikToker arrested after walking into houses

Bacari Ogarro, 18, who goes by the name “Mizzy” on social media, sparked widespread outrage last week after a video of him and two accomplices entering a home in Islington, north London, went viral.

“Walking into random houses, let’s go,” he says in the video.

The young men then walk past a woman in the garden of the townhouse into the open front door, as she urgently calls for her partner inside. Ogarro films himself lounging on the family’s couch as the man confronts the group and attempts to usher them outside, pleading that “we’ve got kids, man”.

Other disturbing “prank” videos have since resurfaced showing the youth and his friends harassing members of the public — as well as entering at least one other house — prompting calls for police to intervene.

“An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and is currently in police custody,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Monday, adding he was arrested that evening.

“The arrest follows an investigation into social media footage which featured a number of incidents, including apparently unsolicited approaches made towards members of the public in the street or on transport, and entering addresses without the apparent permission of the owners.”

Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway of the Central East Command Unit, responsible for policing in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said he did “not underestimate the widespread upset, distress and concern that these videos caused”.

“Some people have referred to these as ‘prank’ videos, but I hope that this significant development demonstrates just how seriously we have been taking this investigation since this footage began circulating online,” he said.

“A number of these videos were produced, impacting on many different people and our investigation remains ongoing as we seek to build a strong picture of both the activity featured in the footage and impact on the public.”

In one video captioned “Mizzy gets a new dog”, Ogarro approaches an elderly woman sitting on a park bench, telling her “you’ve got a nice dog”, before picking it up and running away laughing with the animal under his arm.

Ogarro claimed he later returned the dog.

Other videos showed Ogarro harassing women in parks and on public transport.

One shows Ogarro approaching three young women sitting at a train station asking them if they “want to die” and repeatedly touching the hair of one. “Do you want to die, yes or no? Speak, I’m talking to you, bro,” he says.

Similar videos showed Ogarro and his friends, wearing black balaclavas, approaching people on the street and asking them threateningly if they “want to die”, in some cases chasing or surrounding them.

Another video showed Ogarro entering a random car and pretending “this is my Uber”, sparking a heated confrontation with the driver.

Yet another shows Ogarro entering a public library and tearing up a book before pushing his way into a back room and harassing staff. “If I can get books out of the library why can’t I rip pages out of the books as well?” he asks.

“Because then other people can’t use them,” the employee says.

“Who gives a f**k about other people,” Ogarro responds.

Ogarro had previously been arrested after filming himself harassing and assaulting Orthodox Jews.

Salman Anwar, a senior parliamentary assistant to Conservative MP Saqib Bhatti, wrote on Twitter over the weekend that Ogarro was “so proud of his new found fame in publicly committing crimes that he’s bragging about it on YouTube”, sharing a clip of Ogarro and a friend boasting about their media coverage.

“Today we are going viral, lads,” Ogarro says in the video.

“More viral than I’ve been in the past two, three years. Like, I started social media since I was eight, been doing videos, been making bangers, been blowing up since I was young. But this right here, everywhere. Reposts, tweets, bro you guys already know what I’m talking about.”

TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have all since banned Ogarro’s accounts.

On Monday, a friend posted a video of Ogarro turning himself in at the police station. “Free Mizzy, bro,” the friend says, asking the live-streamer, “Last statement?”

“We outside — share the message,” Ogarro says.

It came after the Metropolitan Police confirmed it was “taking the matter very seriously” and was trying to locate Ogarro, following statements from several politicians condemning the videos.

“No legitimate social media platform should be hosting this thug’s vile videos,” tweeted Susan Hall, a Conservative Member of the London Assembly. “@metpoliceuk please can you urgently update the public as to what is being done to locate and apprehend this criminal.”

Labor MP Alex Davies-Jones described the content as “abhorrent” and “upsetting”.

“Yet another example of how we desperately need the Online Safety Bill to hold the social media platforms to account,” she tweeted.

“YouTube and TikTok seem happy to allow this irresponsible content to proliferate on their platforms. It’s unacceptable. The @metpoliceuk need to take action and hold this individual to account for his completely abhorrent behaviour. But the platforms who allow this content to be amplified for increased engagement and ad revenue also need to be held responsible for promoting and encouraging this.”

Speaking to The Independent this week, Ogarro claimed the negative reaction to his videos was partly due to him being black and that “people are trying to slander me”.

“I’m a black male doing these things and that’s why there’s such an uproar on the internet,” he told the newspaper.

“I don’t fake my pranks, but I always make sure to sort out the situation after if I feel like I went too overboard, but none of my pranks have malicious intentions behind them and most of the people in the pranks acknowledge that after I speak to them.”

In another interview with the Daily Star on Monday, Ogarro said it was “unfair” that his accounts were banned. “All my social media accounts are gone right now, my Instagram got taken down this morning so did my YouTube,” he said.

“I ain’t really bothered about TikTok because I’ve been banned over 20 times so it’s nothing new to me. But for YouTube and Instagram to ban me despite not posting videos that go against their community guidelines but due to public uproar is unfair. There’s been so many other creators that have done what I’ve done or even worse and still have a platform. Just seems suspicious.”

Ogarro told The Independent he didn’t care whether he was receiving love or hate because it was all about engagement and “it’s the fact that people are talking that’s important”.

“I ain’t got too much to say to them people just that I know myself and so do my fans,” he said in response to people branding his behaviour “criminal”.

But Ogarro claimed he did feel “sympathy and remorse” for entering the family’s house, saying he “wouldn’t do that again”.

“It could have been the best or worst decision of my life,” he said.

frank.chung@news.com.au