YouTuber shot after prank goes badly wrong

A YouTuber has been shot after he attempted to carry out a prank at a shopping mall in Dulles, Virginia. The subject of the prank was unimpressed with the ‘joke’, allegedly shooting the YouTuber in the abdomen.

The 21-year-old Tanner Cook, a prankster on YouTube channel Classified Goons, was placed in intensive care on Sunday 2 April after a bullet pierced his stomach and liver. As reported by Insider, Cook remains in hospital following surgery to his abdomen. Jeramy Cook, the YouTuber’s father, explained that his son’s gallbladder had been removed during surgery and that he’d been given heavy medication to help deal with the pain. The father was hopeful that his son would make a swift recovery.

In an interview with local station WUSA, the YouTuber said, “I was playing a prank, a simple practical joke, and this guy didn’t take it very well and shot me.” The full details of the prank are, at the time of writing, unknown but a detective on the case explained to the elder Mr Cook that it involved Google Translate. The younger Cook was supposedly “asking a guy some questions and had his phone in his face and he didn’t appreciate it”.

Classified Goons, the channel that Cook is a part of, has just over 40,000 subscribers. Popular videos including ‘snitching on my cameraman’ to various store security guards, ‘telling workers they’re being recorded’, ‘accusing people of stealing’, ‘asking strangers to wet my whistle’, ‘taking people’s groceries’, ‘deliberately filming in people’s faces’, ‘accusing people of buying alcohol’, ‘firing employees at stores I don’t work at’, and ‘breaking store items in front of workers’.

Insider noted that earlier prank victims had become aggressive and phoned the police. Cook was filming a video in the Dulles Town Centre mall’s food court when the supposed prank victim and suspect, Alan Colie, allegedly pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and fired at Cook. The YouTuber’s family claim that Colie, 31, has been charged with aggravated malicious wounding, shooting in the commission of a felony, and discharging firearms within an occupied building.

The YouTuber’s father told reporters, “So what happened was he got offended and decided to shoot my son because he was offended at what my son was doing. And so, I just think there’s a greater issue here with too many people being offended, rightly or wrongly, and then going out of control.” He continued, “Even though this guy tried killing my son, I forgive him.”

Colie has a preliminary hearing scheduled for May. The YouTuber told WUSA that he intends to continue with his pranks, despite the incident.