Etika

Following several months that involved Amofah exhibiting signs of mental illness, as well as threatening to commit suicide on multiple occasions, he disappeared on the evening of June 19, 2019, after uploading an apologetic video in which he admitted to being mentally ill and suicidal. Amofah's body was discovered in the East River on June 25 by the New York City Police Department, after it was believed he jumped from the Manhattan Bridge. On June 26, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner determined that Amofah committed suicide by drowning.

On April 16, 2019, Amofah tweeted that he was going to kill himself with a pistol he bought from a gun store in Long Island, which led to his arrest and hospitalization. Christine Cardona, who had dated Amofah from 2011 to 2017, confirmed his well-being, and that she had been "observing him all day". Days later, he posted a photoshopped picture of himself holding a gun which Cardona later confirmed was fake. On April 29, after tweeting a vast quantity of cryptic messages, including homophobic and ethnic slurs (that were promptly deleted), he blocked close friends of his, including fellow YouTuber Sky Williams. Later that day, he live-streamed himself being detained by police to over 19,000 viewers on Instagram Live, after a concerned fan had notified police about his alarmingly erratic nature during the livestream. He was also detained again later that same week for assaulting a police officer. Amofah would then make an appearance on the YouTube channel "DramaAlert", run by Internet personality Keemstar, for an interview, in which he stated he was the "antichrist" and that he wanted to "purge all life".

In the late evening on June 19, 2019, Amofah posted a YouTube video titled "I'm sorry" to his personal YouTube channel TR1Iceman, alluding to his suicidal thoughts as he was walking down New York City streets. In the video he admitted to having mental health issues, struggling with the attention he had gained from streaming, and apologized for pushing people away from him. Amofah left a suicide note in the description of the video. YouTube removed the video for violating its Community Guidelines, though Amofah's fans reposted the video to other outlets.

On June 25, 2019, YouTuber Abe Hunter announced he was the owner and operator of Amofah's website and converted it into a fundraiser site where 100% of the profits are donated to National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Amofah's name. On July 15, 2019 on behalf of the JOYCONBOYZ community; Abe Hunter donated the $11,315.25 raised to National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in memory of Amofah.

On July 21, 2019, YouTuber PewDiePie started a fundraiser on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe with American actor Jack Black for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), due to the death of Amofah. PewDiePie and Jack Black streamed themselves playing Minecraft together to raise money for their fundraiser. PewDiePie donated $10,000 to the fundraiser and raised over $30,000 for NAMI.

On August 13, 2019, an Indiegogo campaign was started on Amofah's behalf. The Charity campaign was created to earn donations for The Jed Foundation. Contributors to the campaign received a custom made pair of Etika themed Joy-Con, dubbed "Etikons"

On November 6, 2019, it was revealed that after raising the initial $11,315.25 for National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), YouTubers Abe Hunter and Double-A worked with Mural Artist BK FOXX, Graffiti artist Kestaadm and JMZWalls to create a 40-feet long mural dedicated to Amofah in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The mural was created to celebrate Amofah's life and to help bring awareness to mental health. The mural's location was added as a virtual "PokéStop" in the augmented reality game Pokémon Go in February 2020 after over 350,000 people requested Niantic to add it in memory of Amofah.

On October 25, 2018, Amofah uploaded pornography to his YouTube channel EWNetwork (then titled Etika), which violated YouTube's policies and consequently led to the channel's termination. He later had his second channel EtikaFRFX terminated in April 2019 for the same reason. He was also banned from Twitch that year for using a homophobic slur during a stream. Following the termination of his EWNetwork channel, Amofah posted cryptic messages to social media, including the statement "it's my turn to die", coupled with a screenshot of his terminated account. Several of his followers felt that the messages and posts were suicidal in nature, which quickly created a panic within his following. Amofah took to social media that evening to confirm his well-being, along with other streamers who professed to having seen him safe and sound in person, so as to allay his followers' fears. He later apologized on his subreddit r/EtikaRedditNetwork.

In June 2017, Amofah revealed himself to be the victim of multiple "fake donations", or "chargebacks" of large amounts of money sent to his PayPal account via stream donations, which would jostle Amofah with hundreds of dollars in processing fees.

Amofah's content was typically described as Nintendo-focused. He frequently streamed reactions, often over-the-top, to Nintendo Direct presentations, which usually involved him screaming and falling out of his chair in elated shock. He dubbed his fans the "Joy-Con Boyz", after the Nintendo Switch controllers known as the Joy-Con and would frequently end his videos with his signature catchphrase "Take care of yourself. Have yourself a damn good one!" In November 2016, two videos of Amofah's where he purported to have a Nintendo Switch console before its 2017 release gained notoriety and were scrutinized by fans. It would eventually be learned the model Amofah was using was 3D-printed by fellow YouTuber "Sandqvist" at his request.

Prior to the Etika branding, Amofah was active in modeling and rapping, having released an independently produced mixtape titled "Written In Ice" in 2007, under his pseudonym, "Iceman". He started modeling in 2011 and continued until 2015. Amofah stated in a tweet that the name Etika came from the 2003 video game Sonic Battle, of which he was a fan of in his youth. In the game, players could input a cheat code titled "EkiTa" into the game. When Amofah was 12, he simply switched the T's place with the K's as he "liked that result better." He started using YouTube to broadcast his gaming and reaction streams in 2012 under his original username "EWNetwork" (meaning "Etika World Network"). It was originally planned for the channel's content to be produced collaboratively by a variety of users including Amofah himself, but such plans never materialized. Prior to the closure of his main channel on YouTube in 2018, he had more than 800,000 subscribers between his YouTube and Twitch channels, and within months after creating a second YouTube channel, known as "EtikaFRFX", he had gained more than 130,000 subscribers.

Desmond Daniel Amofah (May 12, 1990 – c. June 19, 2019 ), better known by his online alias Etika, was an American YouTuber, streamer and model. He was best known for his over-the-top reactions to Nintendo Direct presentations.

Desmond Daniel Amofah was born on May 12, 1990, in Brooklyn, New York, to father Owuraku Amofah, a Ghanaian politician and lawyer from Kibi, Ghana, and mother, Sabrina Amofah. Owuraku served as a member of the Parliament of Ghana for Abuakwa Central constituency from 1992 to 1996. Owuraku's father's relative (addressed by him as "uncle") Nana Akufo-Addo, of the prominent Ghanaian Ofori-Atta family, became President of Ghana in January 2017. Amofah had several siblings, including an older brother, Randy Amofah, who died on October 31, 2010 from an asthma attack while driving through a sandstorm in Ghana, according to Amofah's ex-girlfriend Christine Cardona.