YouTuber Shot After Trying To Prank Man In A Mall

[Cicada 5]

Tanner Cook is a member of the Classified Goons, a group that has been posting prank videos on YouTube since May 2022. Known as “just a couple of ‘bone heads,’” according to the group’s YouTube channel description, these pranksters have racked up millions of views across TikTok and YouTube for their typically silly and infantile jokes. One of the group’s most watched videos features popular streamer JiDion, in which he and one of the Goons stroll through stores snitching on the cameraperson filming random people in a bombastic way to start drama. Another video shows a Goon member telling dealerships that one of the cars being sold on the lot is actually their stolen car. You know, very high school, early-to-mid 2010s YouTube-era stuff. Nothing too heinous or egregious. However, a recent practical joke attempt went awry and ended in unfortunate (and unwarranted) violence this week.


According to news station WUSA9, Cook was shot in the stomach and liver while recording a Classified Goons video inside the Dulles Town Center mall in Sterling, Virginia. The suspected shooter, 31-year-old Alan W. Colie, was arrested and charged with aggravated malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and discharging a firearm within a building. An investigation is still underway, while Cook had surgery for the incident. He told WUSA9 that Colie didn’t say anything. He just pulled out a gun and shot Cook.

“I’m fine,” Cook told WUSA9 in an exclusive interview. “I was just playing a prank, a simple practical joke, and this guy didn’t take it very well and shot me.”

YouTuber Shot After Trying To Prank Man In A Mall [Update]

Prankster Tanner Cook told a news station that the shooter didn't take the 'simple practical joke' well

kotaku.com

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Honestly, I'm only surprised that this doesn't happen more often in this country.

 

[tippy2k2]

IT'S JUST A PRANK BRO!

 

[Worgen]

IT'S JUST A PRANK BRO!

The prank or the shooting? Cause you could say that after either.

 

[Gordon_4]

Honestly, I'm only surprised that this doesn't happen more often in this country.

Actually I too am surprised this isn’t a more common occurrence.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

A YouTuber was making a prank video in a Virginia mall. He said the prankee took it badly and shot him.

Tanner Cook of the YouTube channel 'Classified Goons' said he was recording a practical joke when a prankee took it badly and shot him in the abdomen.

www.insider.com

So, the "prank" wasn't huge, just them getting in the guy's business and being annoying. Maybe not enough for them to be shot over, but, definitely in the realm of "It's just a prank bro, calm down". The article above has some insights on what other "jokes" he's done, and... yeah, I seem to remember why this fad died down a little bit in popularity

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

On the one hand... Wow... way to totally and massively overreacted to some annoying little prick.

On the other hand... anyone calling themselves an "internet prankster" should probably be shot on principle.

 

[Baffle]

Maybe the whole thing is a prank on us. Can't express sympathy, too risky I'm the butt of the joke. Shouldn't have cried wolf.

 

[tippy2k2]

A YouTuber was making a prank video in a Virginia mall. He said the prankee took it badly and shot him.

Tanner Cook of the YouTube channel 'Classified Goons' said he was recording a practical joke when a prankee took it badly and shot him in the abdomen.

www.insider.com

So, the "prank" wasn't huge, just them getting in the guy's business and being annoying. Maybe not enough for them to be shot over, but, definitely in the realm of "It's just a prank bro, calm down". The article above has some insights on what other "jokes" he's done, and... yeah, I seem to remember why this fad died down a little bit in popularity

While I agree the shooter is almost certainly in the wrong, until we actually see the video, I'm not sure we can make that judgement.

There's two kinds of pranksters like these that I've seen; one's like when Jay Leno did Jay Walking and asked people questions and whatnot and ones where the prankster gets right up in their grill, shoving the microphone (or in this case phone) in the person's face and yelling at them and basically being a huge pain in the ass. Actions that could very easily be interpreted as an attack if someone is flustered and not knowing what is going on.

While the use of a gun is probably going to be considered excessive no matter how what, if someone legit thinks they're being attacked because some "prankster" has aggressively gotten into their face and started screaming at them, I find it hard to blame them if they believed someone was attacking them. Cops get to do the "I feared for my life!" shit all the time and they're supposedly trained to deal with stressful situations...

 

[Thaluikhain]

While I agree the shooter is almost certainly in the wrong, until we actually see the video, I'm not sure we can make that judgement.

There's two kinds of pranksters like these that I've seen; one's like when Jay Leno did Jay Walking and asked people questions and whatnot and ones where the prankster gets right up in their grill, shoving the microphone (or in this case phone) in the person's face and yelling at them and basically being a huge pain in the ass. Actions that could very easily be interpreted as an attack if someone is flustered and not knowing what is going on.

While the use of a gun is probably going to be considered excessive no matter how what, if someone legit thinks they're being attacked because some "prankster" has aggressively gotten into their face and started screaming at them, I find it hard to blame them if they believed someone was attacking them. Cops get to do the "I feared for my life!" shit all the time and they're supposedly trained to deal with stressful situations...

There was a team of "pranksters" in Australia a few years back, they'd dress up as caricatures of Muslims, throw backpacks at people and yell "bomb!". It ended badly for one of them, and no sympathy there.

 

[Baffle]

Like an idiot, I looked very briefly at the YouTube channel. I have established who's side I am on, though you guys probably should work on gun control as well. Just a kicking would have been enough.

Edit: Actually, I'm going to pop an edit it in here. When I see shit like this, I think 'how would x (where x is a person I know who is very shy and struggles with social situations) have dealt with these people?' And I know that x would have been humiliated and likely reduced to tears, and I just think fuck those guys, maybe shooting you was excessive, but who am I to judge, really?

 

[tippy2k2]

There was a team of "pranksters" in Australia a few years back, they'd dress up as caricatures of Muslims, throw backpacks at people and yell "bomb!". It ended badly for one of them, and no sympathy there.

While "More guns would save the day!!!" is usually just a braindead stupid take that does nothing to help anyone and will just get more and more people killed, even a broken clock is right twice a day...

 

[Ag3ma]

There was a team of "pranksters" in Australia a few years back, they'd dress up as caricatures of Muslims, throw backpacks at people and yell "bomb!". It ended badly for one of them, and no sympathy there.

I think if a prank is likely to cause severe distress or a sense of threat to someone, it should be carefully reconsidered. Part of that includes what is very tricky for some pranksters, which is stopping to dwell upon what the other person will think, not the prankster.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Honestly, I'm only surprised that this doesn't happen more often in this country.

^This. I've seen enough of these "pranks" that could (almost should) have very easily have escalated to violence that I'm surprised we don't see stories like this daily.

One guy I'm reminded of specifically is a [probably] 30-something white dude (who looks like a good ol' boy, beard n'all, who very easily fits a southern racist stereotype) who approaches black male patrons in a store and demands they retrieve something nearby for him with the command "hand me that [insert item], BOY." You can see the incredulous look of the black men's faces quickly escalate to anger, which only makes the white guy insist even further that they "hand me that [insert item], BOY" even more. How he's not gotten his ass whooped on a multitude of occasions baffles me.

It's extremely reckless what he and several other wannabe "internet famous" people are doing. I would hope that the law considers who instigates confrontation when considering any crimes and subsequent punishment. Obviously shooting someone one is a bridge too far by orders of magnitude without an obvious threat to one's own life, but when the "victim" has to admit they initiated the shit for fun and internet views, I'd argue a substantial amount of culpability lies with them. I mean, the whole point is to rile someone up with the hopes it doesn't get to the point of running over into a full-on incident before they can de-escalate with the admission it's just a prank and pointing out the camera and no true ill intent; apparently, that's the humor. But you risk a LOT intentionally starting confrontation with people not in on the "joke," a risk that extends to those marks who might very well respond the way the point of the "prank" expects them to, if not worse. This guy who shot Cook might have been having a bad day; who knows what his frame of mind was when Cook approached him for "lolz" and personal gain? And in our modern societal environment, you never know what people will do. If anything, pranksters need to take incidents like this on as an occupational hazard; not sure I'm okay with innocent people being turned criminal because some asshole has little more to do than poke bears for fun.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I think if a prank is likely to cause severe distress or a sense of threat to someone, it should be carefully reconsidered.

Yeah, that's not a prank, that's bullying or worse.

^This. I've seen enough of these "pranks" that could (almost should) have very easily have escalated to violence that I'm surprised we don't see stories like this daily.

One guy I'm reminded of specifically is a [probably] 30-something white dude (who looks like a good ol' boy, beard n'all, who very easily fits a southern racist stereotype) who approaches black male patrons in a store and demands they retrieve something nearby for him with the command "hand me that [insert item], BOY." You can see the incredulous look of the black men's faces quickly escalate to anger, which only makes the white guy insist even further that they "hand me that [insert item], BOY" even more. How he's not gotten his ass whooped on a multitude of occasions baffles me.

It's extremely reckless what he and several other wannabe "internet famous" people are doing. I would hope that the law considers who instigates confrontation when considering any crimes and subsequent punishment. Obviously shooting someone one is a bridge too far by orders of magnitude without an obvious threat to one's own life, but when the "victim" has to admit they initiated the shit for fun and internet views, I'd argue a substantial amount of culpability lies with them. I mean, the whole point is to rile someone up with the hopes it doesn't get to the point of running over into a full-on incident before they can de-escalate with the admission it's just a prank and pointing out the camera and no true ill intent; apparently, that's the humor. But you risk a LOT intentionally starting confrontation with people not in on the "joke," a risk that extends to those marks who might very well respond the way the point of the "prank" expects them to, if not worse. This guy who shot Cook might have been having a bad day; who knows what his frame of mind was when Cook approached him for "lolz" and personal gain? And in our modern societal environment, you never know what people will do. If anything, pranksters need to take incidents like this on as an occupational hazard; not sure I'm okay with innocent people being turned criminal because some asshole has little more to do than poke bears for fun.

Oh, remember from a few years back the "prankster' whose thing was to run up to female celebrities from behind, grab them and lif them into the air while they were being filmed arriving at places? He did that with Gig Hadid and she hit him (she got some flak over that), and then to capitalise on his new found fame and success, tried that with Kim Kardashian and discovered that she had a number of enthusiastic bodyguards with her? I think he stopped after that.

 

[Baffle]

Yeah, that's not a prank, that's bullying or worse.

I would say that pretty much all 'pranks' on strangers fall under bullying. It's really only the previously unknown gun that makes this different; how many pranks do hilarious internet guys do on brick shithouses?

 

[Thaluikhain]

I would say that pretty much all 'pranks' on strangers fall under bullying. It's really only the previously unknown gun that makes this different; how many pranks do hilarious internet guys do on brick shithouses?

Eh, IIRC, Miley Cyrus once disguised herself as a reporter and went around asking people what they thought of Miley Cyrus without them knowing it was her. I don't imagine it was entertaining, but I'm not seeing much harm in that.

(And I've just realised I know of too many high-ish profile pranks)

 

[Baffle]

Eh, IIRC, Miley Cyrus once disguised herself as a reporter and went around asking people what they thought of Miley Cyrus without them knowing it was her. I don't imagine it was entertaining, but I'm not seeing much harm in that.

(And I've just realised I know of too many high-ish profile pranks)

I think then broadcasting it would cross the line for me (though I guess it depends on whether the people were willing to have that opinion broadcast before it turned out they were talking to Miley Cyrus).

 

[Xprimentyl]

I would say that pretty much all 'pranks' on strangers fall under bullying. It's really only the previously unknown gun that makes this different; how many pranks do hilarious internet guys do on brick shithouses?

You'd be surprised; a lot of these "pranksters" DO intentionally "punch up" from their weight class for the sheer absurdity, though they're much quicker to "wait-wait-wait, it's just a joke!!" to keep from getting their clothes folded while they're still in them.

 

[Ag3ma]

I would say that pretty much all 'pranks' on strangers fall under bullying.

I think any prank that makes a random member of the public look like a tool is uncomfortable, so mockery is best kept off the unwitting participant - so for instance a situation that works more like a comedy duo where the unwitting participant is a "straight man" to the prankster's eccentric.