Horror moment YouTuber Tanner Cook is shot in the gut in busy mall as prank for ‘Classified Goons’ channel goes wrong
THIS is the horror moment a YouTube prankster was shot in the gut in a packed mall during a YouTube prank gone wrong.
Shocking footage shows the encounter between 21-year-old Tanner Cook, one of the personalities behind the Classified Goons channel, and Alan Colie, the 31-year-old food delivery driver who shot him.
Cook is seen approaching Colie at the Popeye’s counter in Dulles Town Center in Sterling, Virginia.
He shoves his phone in Colie’s face and uses the Google translate app to repeat the phrase “Hey dips**t, quit thinking about my twinkle” in both English and Spanish.
Colie backs away and asks Cook to stop three times. He attempts to push the phone away from his face, but Cook persists.
After 20 seconds of this, Colie pulls out a gun and shoots Cook in the stomach.
The bullet pierced through Cook’s stomach and liver, and he was quickly taken to hospital where he spent multiple days fighting for his life in intensive care.
Police officers pinned Colie down and arrested him. He was charged with discharging a firearm inside a building, aggravated malicious wounding, and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Colie has since been found not guilty of the charge of aggravated malicious wounding.
He has claimed that he was acting in self-defence.
During the trial, prosecutor Eden Holmes said that Cook’s prank was non-threatening and that the facts went against Colie’s self-defence claims.
Any cases claiming self-defence require a reasonable fear of imminent danger.
“They were playing a silly phrase on a phone. How could the defendant have found that he was reasonably in fear of imminent bodily harm?”
“They were holding cellphones, not weapons,” said Holmes.
But Adam Pouilliard, Colie’s defence attorney, blamed Cook’s 6 foot 4 stature for his client’s reaction during the confrontation.
Pouilliard said that the YouTuber is “trying to confuse people to post videos. He’s not worried that he’s scaring people. He keeps doing this.”
Colie was found guilty on the charge of shooting into an occupied dwelling, but his lawyers have also appealed against this.
If found guilty, he will be charged with 10 years in prison.
Many people have taken to social media in support of Colie, saying that Cook was harassing him.
Cook’s YouTube channel Classified Goons, which has amassed 50,000 subscribers is notoriously controversial.
Previous stunts on the channel have included taking rackets from tennis players and pretending to vomit on Uber drivers.
Cook has asserted that the shooting incident has not scared him from his prankster lifestyle and that he will continue to make videos.
He has posted three new videos since being shot.