Alan Colie, 31, shot Tanner Cook, 21, after the latter stalked him in a mall and refused to stop—and a jury there just acquitted him of malicious wounding, determining that Colie acted in self-defense. Cook is a 6ft 5in YouTuber who films himself harassing people under the pretense of it being a "prank," and Colie was working as a delivery driver. Colie remains in custody, however, as jurors convicted him on a firearms charge.
Jurors saw video of the shooting, which captures the confrontation between Cook and Colie lasting less than 30 seconds. The footage shows Cook approaching Colie as he picks up a food order. 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.
In 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. There is no pause between the moment he draws the weapon and fires the shot.
Cook's channel is full of similarly menacing stunts, and he has continued to post since the incident, which landed him in intensive care. YouTube pays him $2000-$3000 a month, according to the Associated Press.
Cook's … channel, which has more than 50,000 subscribers, is replete with off-putting 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.
Embedded below is the video of him pranking his mother while she talks earnestly to a reporter at the end of the trial. I hope Cook wakes up. The ADA short-strawed with prosecuting his eventual killer isn't going to make much of an effort.
