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.
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Subjective belief isn't justification. There were zero verbal or physical threats and plenty of room to just walk the fuck away.
Lethal force is only moral or legal when there is an imminent threat to your life that is subjectively and objectively reasonable.
E: ITT, fragile bitches downvote true statements of law.
There was absolutely threats. Coming at someone, shoving a phone in their face and aggressively speaking in an unfamiliar language absolutely is a threat.
Not a threat to your fragility, a threat to your life. An imminent one. Here's a primer written for I don't know like thrid graders or something that goes into whether the common law recognizes a reasonable apprehension of immiment harm.
https://www.findlaw.com/injury/torts-and-personal-injuries/elements-of-assault.html
If you aren't a victim of common law assault, you have no valid, legal justification to use ANY force in self defense. The dude's conduct was offensive and aggressive, no doubt.
But what fact gives rise to a reasonable apprehension of serious, imminent threat to life? The dude was unarmed.
You say phone, approaching, foreign language. Sounds like you want to be able to shoot foreigners who walk up to you. How do you know the person isn't asking for help?
Your very own quote applies here, the guy kept approaching a fleeing individual, that's a "reasonable apprehension of imminent injury or offensive contact". Someone much bigger than you running you down is not "safe".
Where is the threat to life? Having your personal space invaded is offensive, sure. Not threatening to your life.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you're unaware of violent crime that does not involve guns? Lets put the gun aside for a moment and analyze whether or not the guy felt afraid. If someone walks up to you in the manner this guy did, you get afraid. It's WHAT THE PERPETRATOR WANTED THE GUY TO DO! He even said that he kept approaching because the guy wasn't reacting the way he wanted. He was escalating the threat to get a reaction. If the guy didn't have a gun he would have swung instead of shooting when backing away clearly wasn't working. Fight or Flight is called a "reaction" for a reason. It's not a fully conscious process. This "prankster" only did what he did because he was so large and intimidating that he knew he didn't have to fear physical reprisal for his obvious assaults.
Okay you get afraid.
On what fact do you infer a reasonable, imminent fear for your life.