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.
Play stupid games win stupid prizes.
Nooooo keep this stupid fucking trash phrase to Reddit, this is the first time I’ve seen this bullshit here
STOP
That phrase has been around longer than the internet even. Has nothing to do with Reddit or Lemmy.
It was in EVERY Reddit thread, it’s a stupid phrase, and this is the first time I’ve seen it here on Lemmy.
Sorry, but this seems like a perfect scenario to use that phrase
I'm sorry to say you will encounter this phrase alot in your life. It's been an incredibly popular phrase for at least 100 years. Not sure what you have against it, but might be worth trying to solve that underlying problem instead of just being mad every time you hear it. You'll be mad alot.
its overused
"alot" is not a word.
Being in the dictionary isn't a requirement for something to be a word. Dictionarys describe languages not regulate them.
Language evolve and new spellings and words enter.
Right, but "alot" is still not a word. "lot" is a noun. Downvote if you must.
My point was that if "alot" has all the other trapping of a word and can be used to successfully convey meaning so it is a word. Spelling for most of written history hasn't been standardized and even today there's lots of words that get 'misspelled' in generally accepted manners like "ok" instead of "okay" or "cant" vs "can't".
If I were to write "Gunnaf hoodie Saddie?", does that make any sense to you? Read it out loud (fast) to most Australians and you'll likely be understood. (spoiler below).
Grammar and spelling conventions make writing understandable and accessible to a broad readership. "Lot" is a noun. What is "alot"? Can it be defined - other than being an incorrect contraction of "a lot"? English evolves, but generally not in a direction where grammatical fundamentals are ignored.
spoiler
"Are you going to the football (footy) Saturday?"___Nah fuck that, I’ll complain every time. I’m old. I’ve only ever heard it parroted by idiots on Reddit, and not until the mid 2010s. It is not a popular phrase, and only idiot redditors use it. I’ve never heard it in real life.
If you've never heard a foreign language spoken in your life does that mean it also originated on reddit?
I’m old too and if you never heard it before Reddit then you probably weren’t online before then.
bitch my GameFAQs account is 20 years old
What really matters is the age of your IRC account.
Goodness, as old as the days I left AOL teen chat.
I concur...it's a fucking bot like post.
Thank you. I’m so happy not to see all these stupid Reddit-isms here (play stupid games, shoes off, broken arms, etc) in every single thread.
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