A YouTube prankster who was shot by one his targets told jurors Tuesday he had no inkling he had scared or angered the man who fired on him as the prank was recorded.

Tanner Cook, whose “Classified Goons” channel on YouTube has more than 55,000 subscribers, testified nonchalantly about the shooting at start of the trial for 31-year-old Alan Colie, who’s charged with aggravated malicious wounding and two firearms counts.

The April 2 shooting at the food court in Dulles Town Center, about 45 minutes west of Washington, D.C., set off a panic as shoppers fled what they feared to be a mass shooting.

Jurors also saw video of the shooting, recorded by Cook’s associates. The two interacted for less than 30 seconds. Video shows Cook approaching Colie, a DoorDash driver, as he picked up an order. The 6-foot-5 (1.95-meter-tall) Cook looms over Colie while holding a cellphone about 6 inches (15 centimeters) from Colie’s face. The phone broadcasts the phrase “Hey dips—-, quit thinking about my twinkle” multiple times through a Google Translate app.

On the video, Colie says “stop” three different times and tries to back away from Cook, who continues to advance. Colie tries to knock the phone away from his face before pulling out a gun and shooting Cook in the lower left chest.

Cook, 21, testified Tuesday that he tries to confuse the targets of his pranks for the amusement of his online audience. He said he doesn’t seek to elicit fear or anger, but acknowledged his targets often react that way.

Asked why he didn’t stop the prank despite Colie’s repeated requests, Cook said he “almost did” but not because he sensed fear or anger from Colie. He said Colie simply wasn’t exhibiting the type of reaction Cook was looking for.

“There was no reaction,” Cook said.

In opening statements, prosecutors urged jurors to set aside the off-putting nature of Cook’s pranks.

“It was stupid. It was silly. And you may even think it was offensive,” prosecutor Pamela Jones said. “But that’s all it was — a cellphone in the ear that got Tanner shot.”

Defense attorney Tabatha Blake said her client didn’t have the benefit of knowing he was a prank victim when he was confronted with Cook’s confusing behavior.

She said the prosecution’s account of the incident “diminishes how unsettling they were to Mr. Alan Colie at the time they occurred.”

In the video, before the encounter with Colie, Cook and his friends can be heard workshopping the phrase they want to play on the phone. One of the friends urges that it be “short, weird and awkward.”

Cook’s “Classified Goons” channel is replete with repellent stunts, like pretending to vomit on Uber drivers and following unsuspecting customers through department stores. At a preliminary hearing, sheriff’s deputies testified that they were well aware of Cook and have received calls about previous stunts. Cook acknowledged during cross-examination Tuesday that mall security had tossed him out the day prior to the shooting as he tried to record pranks and that he was trying to avoid security the day he targeted Colie.

Jury selection took an entire day Monday, largely because of publicity the case received in the area. At least one juror said during the selection process that she herself had been a victim of one of Cook’s videos.

Cook said he continues to make the videos and earns $2,000 or $3,000 a month. His subscriber base increased from 39,000 before the shooting to 55,000 after.

  • @kescusay
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    121 year ago

    Hey guys, can we quit with the calls for the deaths of assholes? Lemmy.world’s server rules include this:

    1. No links to content supporting, featuring, or promoting hate movements, terrorism, mass violence, or calls to violence.

    I’ve seen that interpreted as including comments that call for someone’s death, and I don’t want to see this shit get out of hand and draw admin attention.

    This particular piece of shit, Tanner Cook, deserves to have his channels shut down, deserves some prison time, and deserves some kind of court order preventing him from pulling stupid “pranks” on anyone ever again. Maybe then he can do something productive with his life, instead of… whatever the fuck it is he’s doing right now.

    But he can’t do that if he’s dead.

    Being an asshole isn’t a capital offense, worthy of summary execution. And the judge in this case apparently agrees.

    So just tone it down a little, OK?

    • @[email protected]
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      161 year ago

      But he can’t do that if he’s dead.

      Can’t antagonize people going about their lives, either.

      • @kescusayM
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        -71 year ago

        Is that really what you want? A world where being an asshole is a death sentence? No opportunities to turn yourself around?

        I don’t want to live in a world like that, even if I find this guy an absolute tool.

        • HamSwagwich
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          121 year ago

          Being a habitual asshole like that? I think it might be warranted. Nothing of value is lost by those people not being part of society any longer.

          • @kescusayM
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            41 year ago

            I’d rather at least try to rehabilitate a guy like him into a valuable member of society.

            • @WoahWoah
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              1 year ago

              Nevertheless, it’s not unreasonable to want someone to understand that menacing and threatening someone for the lolz can potentially be hazardous to the health of the lolzer. And not always from the the lolzee, there’s that video from I think the UK where they are fake robbing someone, and a bystander punched the YouTuber in the head and split open his face.

              • @kescusayM
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                31 year ago

                Sure, no argument there.

            • megane-kun
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              In the US‌ prison system? Not arguing for the prankster be killed, rather, I think it’d be better if that person be put away until they can be trusted to be mingling with other people again, for as long as it takes. I just doubt they’d be rehabilitated while in the US prison system.

              That’s even ignoring how pranking fellow inmates would not go over as well as that prankster’s YouTube career has gone.

              Edit: I forgot a crucial word in my last paragraph.

        • @grue
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          He wasn’t “being an asshole;” he committed an assault. The victim was entirely justified in defending himself.

          Also, holy shit, self-defense against an active threat is nothing whatsoever like “summary execution!” There’s a huge difference between being forced to make a split-second decision when your own life is perceived to be in danger, and the state deliberately weighing the moral question of whether to kill someone after the situation has passed.

        • @[email protected]
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          31 year ago

          Is that really what you want? A world where being an asshole is a death sentence? No opportunities to turn yourself around?

          Well that’s not at all what I said, is it? Stop extrapolating to get mad.

    • @[email protected]
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      71 year ago

      That’s understandable but now a poor man is going to be left financially ruined and will serve jail time for defending himself.

      • @kescusayM
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        51 year ago

        Agreed, it sucks all around.

    • @histy
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      deleted by creator

      • @WoahWoah
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        Being an asshole to the point where someone fears for their safety is an offense, and in many circumstances can justify defense of one’s person with violence.

        He is giving testimony in a trial about the nature of the encounter; he obviously wasn’t executed, or his testimony would be decidedly less wordy.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 year ago

      This case is very local to me so I have been following a lot of the discussion about it.

      Way too many people are too quick to call for this guy’s death or saying that he deserved to get shot. And I just can’t disagree more. But I do also get why people are sympathetic to the shooter though, cause he very much is also a victim in all this as well.

      This guy though absolutely deserves consequences for these stupid “pranks” and he absolutely should not be earning any kind of money from this. Seriously fuck that guy.

      • @kescusayM
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        31 year ago

        100% agreement. Fuck that guy.

      • @Nastybutler
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        21 year ago

        Seems like he did suffer some consequences for his stupid pranks

      • @kescusayM
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        61 year ago

        Okay, let me be more blunt: Since I don’t want this community, which I mod, to be endangered by becoming a cesspool of support for violence, I will wield the ban-hammer for the very first time to prevent that from happening if I have to.

        I don’t want to, and so far, I don’t think I need to, because just reminding people about Lemmy.world’s rules seems like enough. I intend to mod very lightly, and limit myself to stepping in with reminders and warnings (like this one) as much as possible. This is a fun, light-hearted community, and I want to keep it that way.

        But it’s not the sidebar saying this now, it’s me, the guy who volunteered to mod here and wants this community to thrive: Please don’t push on this. Keep it fun.

          • @kescusayM
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            41 year ago

            Okay-dokay. That’s fine. Fuck mods and all that. But you are on world, when you’re using this community. Which is hosted on world.

            You’ve said your piece, I’ve said mine. No reason we can’t part as friends here, as long as you’re not espousing violence.

      • @JesusLikesYourButt
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        -21 year ago

        Life on this rock isn’t precious. It’s not special. And if you do dumb things that put that little worthless streak of existence your parents blessed you with at risk, that’s not my problem and it’s not my fault if you don’t protect it.

        What? How is being born a blessing if being alive is worthless and not worth viewing as precious? You just are, you aren’t blessed/gifted with existence.

          • @JesusLikesYourButt
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            1 year ago

            I’m just saying your comment doesn’t make sense. You are saying that a parent blesses a child by giving them, or bringing them into, a worthless streak of existence that should not be considered special or precious.

            How is that a blessing? That sucks. Your parents suck donkey dick. Parents that teach their children that kind of thing suck donkey dick.

            Edit: expanded the amount of suck in the world.