A bad prank gone wrong led to a man who posts his shenanigans to his YouTube channel being shot amid a failed prank.
The incident occurred in Virginia at a food court at Dulles Town Center on April 2, 2023. On Sept. 28, a jury found the person targeted, a delivery driver, not guilty in the shooting, according to the Associated Press.
31-year-old Alan Colie was acquitted of aggravated malicious wounding after being charged in the shooting of 21-year-old Tanner Cook, who has a YouTube channel where he pulls pranks on unsuspecting people and posts the content on “Classified Goons.”
DULLES MALL YOUTUBE PRANKSTER SHOOTING#Fox5DC obtains never-before-seen video of interaction between Alan Colie & Tanner Cook on 4/2.
Colie: NOT GUILTY of most serious charges after attorney’s self-defense arguments.
Cook’s dad tells me his son was not a threat.#StayAhead pic.twitter.com/h8LwERdutq
— David Kaplan (@DKaplanFox5DC) September 29, 2023
Colie called his act self-defense and pleaded not guilty to the charges. After a jury had convened for five hours, it initially stated it was “divided in terms of whether the defendant acted in self-defense.”
After being urged by the judge to continue deliberating, they discussed it further and came back with a decision later that day. The jury found Colie guilty of a lesser gun firearms count.
Colie is still in jail, and the case isn’t over. His attorney, Adam Pouilliard, insisted that the conviction on the firearms charge is inconsistent with the law, since Colie won an acquittal on self-defense grounds. Pouilliard asked the judge to set aside the conviction. A judge will hear arguments at a hearing next month.
Pouilliard stated that Colie felt threatened by Cook, who stands at 6 foot 5, and that his client was approached in the manner Cook would take to provoke a reaction and post it on his YouTube channel. In his closing arguments, Pouilliard said Cook was “trying to confuse people to post videos. He’s not worried that he’s scaring people. He keeps doing this.”
Jurors were shown video footage of the interaction that led to Cook being shot while attempting his prank. Though it was no longer than 30 seconds, it revealed the incident between Cook and Colie.
In the clip, Cook approaches Colie as he gets a food order. As Colie backs away from Cook, he appears to look scared as the 6-foot-plus man continues to follow him. That’s when Colie pulls out his weapon and shoots Cook.
