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.
Nope, 51yo average sized male with a military career and enough life experience to know it doesn’t take very long for things to escalate very quickly. 30 seconds is an ETERNITY if you feel threatened.
He isn’t annoying, he’s threatening. Big matters because it amplifies the threat. If Cook was 5’ 70lb 16yo female that would be an entirely different dynamic. Of course if a 5’ 70lb person had their own weapon then we wouldn’t be talking about their size we’d be talking about their weapon. In this case being 6’5" is it’s own potential weapon in the eyes of someone who feels threatened.
I guess I do need this explained to me. I need it explained to me how you don’t understand “phone in your face” is not all that happened. Cook was told to stop, didn’t. Cook was retreated from, for THIRTY FEET (from the news video), and continued to approach Colie. How do YOU not get that can be very threatening to someone? Cook’s own admission that his goal is to “confuse” people is an admission that Colie could have been confused about what was happening and what Cook’s intent was. At that point self-defense = what’s needed to eliminate the threat.
Yes any reasonable person can feel threatened by a 6’5" adult male approaching them, being told to stop, not stopping, and continuing to be pursued while trying to back away from the situation.
But here’s the good news. You and I clearly disagree about what can reasonably be considered a threat that warrants self-defense to eliminate the threat*. And it doesn’t matter. A judge and Jury will get to decide which one of us has the more cogent argument.
https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-law-basics/self-defense-overview.html
well it really doesn’t matter, you are right, the big distinction is “deadly force” as seen below in the proportional response part of self-defense.
Self-defense law requires the response to match the threat level in question. In other words, a person can only use as much force as required to remove the threat. If the threat involves deadly force, the person defending themselves can use deadly force to counteract the threat. If the threat involves only minor force and the person claiming self-defense uses force that could cause grievous bodily harm or death, their claim of self-defense will fail.
The original laws about self-defense required people claiming self-defense first to attempt to avoid violence before using force. This is also known as a “duty to retreat.” While most states have removed this rule for instances involving non-deadly force, many states still require the person to attempt to escape the situation before applying deadly force. It’s important to know the laws of your local jurisdiction to decide whether this duty is required.
Lucky for him it seems Virginia doesn’t have this law.
here is your stupid feels threathened argument:
Sometimes, a person may genuinely fear imminent physical harm that is not objectively reasonable. If that person uses force to defend themselves from the perceived threat, the legal situation is “imperfect self-defense.”
Imperfect self-defense does not excuse a person from the crime but can lessen the charges and penalties involved. But not every state recognizes imperfect self-defense as a reason to lessen a sentence.
guess that explains a lot about your takes here, lol.