A jury has found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who was following him around a mall food court earlier this year
Cook said he continues to make the videos, from which he earns $2,000 to $3,000 a month.
Professional asshole gets shot and learns nothing. All over 2 to 3k a month. Dude could literally work at mcdonalds and make that kind of money.
I’d rather get shot than work at McDonald’s. Have you worked a low wage customer facing job? Literally anything is better. I’d rather have children kick me in the balls all day.
But you would also have to be a total asshole and go around harassing strangers who are just trying to get on with their lives.
True, my point was more about using McDonald’s as a measuring stick is a bad call. Like I’d seriously have to think about it if I have to do one or the other for an extended period.
So a mcdonalds customer too, got it ;)
Harassing people seems like less work
If I could guarantee I’d live, I think I legit agree.
Guaranteed to live but you have to shit in a bag for the rest of your life.
Having worked in fast food and factories, I’d much rather the fast food work than any kind of repetitive factory work.
I’d rather get shot if it was a mild wound and I didn’t have to pay the medical bills afterwards*.
America, the land of opportunity!™
Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life…
This kid loves being an obnoxious asshole, it’s his calling.
He’s working up his immunity by getting shot with smaller calibers first, by the time he’s making 10k/month, he’ll have himself immune to high-caliber rifle rounds from people that are trying to kill him from a distance.
.338 Lapua?
Sue the youtuber until he bankrupts.
What McDonald’s are you working at for $25+ an hour?.Don’t listen to me
2,000 a month is 12.50 an hour not 25. And here 12.50 is below minimum wage.
You’re right, my bad. I’d like to blame the bad math on it being early morning… But it’s just me being dumb.
Don’t apologize, their math is wrong too. That might be their gross pay, but their take home is likely ~2/3 of that.
That’s fine. How would you expect anyone in a conversation like this to apply taxes? Which city, county and state are you going to use for those calculations?
Are you purposely missing the point, or…? Seems like you’re just trying to argue for the sake of arguing.
I’m good.
I don’t know, you completely lost me
Well that’s not take home. They’d prob be taking home around 2/3 of that. So more like 1,300 at $12.50/hour if my quick math is right.
You realize they pay taxes either way right?
Huh? I’m just saying that someone making $12.50/hour, working 40 hours a week, isn’t taking home anything close to $2,000.
And neither is the youtuber which is exactly the point I was making. That theyre being a cunt to other people over what amounts to be a minimum wage job.
Being a youtuber does not magically make you not subject to the exact same taxes that everyone else is. They are not taking home all of what they made any more than a mcdonalds worker does. In fact, being self employed means you are paying the other half of the medicare/social security tax not just half of it directly with most jobs.
Please look at usernames, I’m not the person you’re arguing with. I just corrected the person who said people who make $12.50/hr are making $2k a week because that’s absurd. That’s all.
I feel like every person in this thread that cannot fathom how he feared for his life has never had personal experience dealing with someone with severe mental illness, in their family or in public or something. Direct experience, though, of interacting with a large, loud, mentally ill person.
If you think you can just assume a stranger you encounter who shoves a phone in your face is mentally healthy, you’re missing some facts of life.
The youtuber is 6 foot 5. Someone that tall is going to be intimidating if they get in your face and will not fuck off when asked regardless of what your prior experiences are. This guy knows he scares people. Thats the point of his channel. I mean the dude calls himself the goon squad. He knows hes being an asshole. He gets into peoples’ faces, scares the shit out of them and films the reaction.
You dont need to have dealt with mental illness to have that feeling… you just have to had trauma in the past. I have been jumped 2 times in the past by gang members, and you bet your fucking ass I get absolutely anxious if some stranger gets up to my face… good times
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If you think you can just assume a stranger you encounter who shoves a phone in your face is mentally healthy
Man, you really moved the goalposts to another time zone in just 2 paragraphs.
the fact that you think mentally ill means it’s okay to shoot him means you have lived a bit too long in the dystopiam shithole that’s the USA.
You’re putting words in their mouth.
the fact that you think mentally ill means it’s okay to shoot him
At what point in that small reply do you see him saying that?
At what point in that small reply do you see him saying that?
The entire comment. The topic is fearing for one’s life and defending oneself with a gun, and this guy basically says that it’s right to fear for your life because someone might be mentally ill. Comment again so you don’t have to scroll up:
I feel like every person in this thread that cannot fathom how he feared for his life has never had personal experience dealing with someone with severe mental illness, in their family or in public or something. Direct experience, though, of interacting with a large, loud, mentally ill person.
If you think you can just assume a stranger you encounter who shoves a phone in your face is mentally healthy, you’re missing some facts of life.
The entire comment. The topic is fearing for one’s life and defending oneself with a gun, and this guy basically says that it’s right to fear for your life because someone might be mentally ill. Comment again so you don’t have to scroll up:
Directly quote the part that makes the claim that at any level the point in which you fear for your life is correlated with the idea that they “might be mentally ill”. That was never said, nor would it matter if it was, because fearing grave injury or death is the determining factor, not any other.
Yep, the Glaswegians invented the headbutt just for this scenario
These are the types of people who don’t understand consent. They shove a camera six inches from your face, say nonsensical bullshit, keep following you when you back up, don’t listen when you repeatedly say No and Stop, yet are all shocked Pikachu when someone finally has enough. Fuck these “pranksters”. I hope his next injury is worse, because we all know this literal warning shot wasn’t enough and he’s going to continue.
I don’t think a shot in the abdomen counts as a “literal warning shot”. I think it’s more of just a shot shot.
In the context of not being fucking dead, it’s a warning.
It’s still not a warning shot.
Homeboy still ain’t dead is he? He was told to stop 3 times and kept doing his bullshit.
I have no sympathy. Maybe fuck off when you’ve been asked to stop 3 times. Maybe the next person he tries this on will have better aim.
Still not a warning shot.
Exactly.
Also warning shots are stupid and dangerous.
If you are in imminent enough danger to be discharging your firearm, It should be discharged into the danger.
By firing warning shots, you are showing that you are not in imminent threat, because if you were, you wouldnt be wasting time shooting into the air or off to the side, both of which has a decent probability of ruining some innocent persons good day.
Whats the guy supposed to do, just shoot up in the air? Or maybe carefully aim and shot by his foot just enough threaten him? Or maybe just show the gun to this much bigger guy whos already harrassing him? Any of those situations could either result in a bystander getting hit, or the victim getting killed when his assualter pulls his own gun out.
He did the right thing to protect himself. However he should not have been placed into this situation, all the fault should fall on the aggressor. But instead this victim is being held in jail and might be charged a felony for protecting himself from some deranged youtube asshole, WHO IS PROFITTING FROM THIS CRIME. The victim wouldve been better off if he had got a kill shot.
I think if the Youtuber dies, the jury convicts him. It shouldn’t be a factor, but you know it is.
I know! He was supposed to go all Yosemite Sam on his ass and yell ‘dance, partner!’ while discharging his firearm at the assailant’s feet very quickly. Hillarity would have surely ensued! /s
Whats the guy supposed to do
Back away, run away, call 911, get a mall cop to help, throw a punch…
Literally just about anything other than try to kill another guy.
I mean you actually admitted it yourself without meaning to: “guy whos already harrassing him”. Harassing isn’t threatening. It’s annoying, but it doesn’t make you fear for your life. The other guy didn’t have a weapon, didn’t make physical contact, didn’t threaten him, he just aggressively harassed him. Nobody should die in that situation.
I hope his next injury is worse, because we all know this literal warning shot wasn’t enough and he’s going to continue.
…trying to out-Jackass Steve-O.
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Reading the article it seems they found that he acted in self defense but still got him on a weapons charge which is being appealed.
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He is being rewarded by youtube and his subs for that behavior. Which is especially messed up given youtube demonitizes videos for saying shit and fuck but not the harassment and stalking this guy does.
I reported his channel for harassment way back when this all started and I know a bunch of other people did too. So glad YouTube cares…
Youtube won’t care unless/until it becomes too expensive to ignore
Its a serious problem in our entire criminal justice system. Trump is the post child for the inequality. Charged with 91 felonies and walking around doing as he pleases. Meanwhile this poor guy has been locked up for months without a trial, and may get off with no jail time but he’s in jail anyway.
Not sure how. Concealed carry keys you carry a concealed weapon. This dude pulled his out, banged it out in the food court on a YouTuber, that’s open carry. 😆
I don’t see which weapons charge he was convicted on, or who is appealing. Sounds like there may be inconsistent verdicts. I teresting to see how post verdict motions go.
It doesn’t sound like he was in physical danger but if someone was doing that to me I’d certainly feel like shooting them.
This “prankster” is 6’5". I’m 6’3 and I apparently intimidate people by just existing. If I was going around assaulting people I would fully expect someone to act defensively.
Wow, what a moron.
Me, or the prankster?
Prankster, sorry
Silver lining.
A) it says he was acquitted of one charge, but convicted of another. I’m trying to figure out what the second charge was, except
B) all the news sites that popped up at the top of Google search are literally identical. Cool.
Since the second charge depends on the first, which he was acquitted of, I’m guessing he was convicted of the third.
That would corroborate his lawyers saying that a conviction after a finding of a lack of malice is inconsistent.
This tracks.
Weird how every article about this from today is copy and pasted and omits such key details.
Welcome to modern journalism. It’s copy and paste and AI translators all the way.
That would corroborate his lawyers saying that a conviction after a finding of a lack of malice is inconsistent.
Except the next paragraph says:
If any such act be done unlawfully, but not maliciously, the person so offending is guilty of a Class 6 felony;
But, if the shooting was in self-defense, was it unlawful? Maybe the guy was legally allowed to defend himself, but not legally allowed to shoot a gun inside a crowded food court. Like, the self-defense covers him for injuring another person, but it doesn’t cover the danger he posed to other people when he did it?
Guess I gotta cool it with throwing missiles in public, keep it to the backyard for a bit.
Wait, can I benignly throw missiles in public? Do I have to call something out, like yell hit potato then chuck it?
Very confusing rules
Malice is required.
charges of aggravated malicious wounding and malicious discharge of a firearm
Those are the two other charges. I’m not sure which one he was convicted of though.
The wounding is the main charge.
B) all the news sites that popped up at the top of Google search are literally identical. Cool.
I was just skimming through them, so it took me about five articles to realize that they weren’t just sharing quotes but were actually exact copies. I felt like I was crazy for a minute. I have never seen this kind of thing with news articles, but makes me wonder how common it is.
Also, I was using DDG not Google so it is not just their problem.
Good.
Man doesnt deserve jail for shooting the piece of shit.
he deserves a medal, and a license to go do it to more of those tiktok assholes.
They’re both pieces of shit. You shouldn’t shoot someone without a reasonable fear of your life (or arguably property) being in danger. This situation wasn’t there yet. The fuckface was just being intentionally annoying.
The Youtuber should be in jail for harassment or assault. The shooter should be taking a nice plea deal for a low amount of prison time.
You can’t just shoot someone in the middle of the mall because they’re annoying.
After watching the video of the incident, I don’t blame the driver for shooting him at all.
The “prankster” was acting really creepy and was being right up in the guys face after being asked to stop. Even after trying to walk away, the “prankster” still came right up to him, holding his phone right up to his face.
Fuck that guy. He deserved to get shot. He said he’s gonna keep making those videos, and I hope he gets shot again, but hopefully the next time is the last time.
Yeah, all the people crying about how unjustified the shooting was, would probably shit their pants if two huge guys came up to them, were physically aggressive while chasing and trying to corner them and constantly in physical contact and shoving shit in their face.
You have no idea its a couple of dickheads making a video because they think harassing innocent people is funny. For all you know you’re about to be assaulted, robbed, or worse by someone that should be in a mental health facility.
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This is such a bad ruling. Not only does that jackass get off with no punishment he is even being rewarded for his crimes! Setting the precedence for other pranksters to assault people more and more, and when they fuck around and find out, all they’ll be finding is more viewers and more money.
Should dude had shot him? Thats not my place to say, but if he did indeed feel threatened, which the jury agreed, then he should not be punished for reacting to being assaulted like this.
Its like some people online want the victim to get in trouble for simply owning and carrying a gun, its ridiculous! The victim was being assualted full stop! Not his fault for using what his legally own gun is meant for.
Uh… the guy who shot the YouTuber isn’t being punished; they found him not guilty. The YouTuber isn’t being punished because this case wasn’t about his actions, it was about the dude who shot him. He’s not being rewarded, though.
The only weird part about the ruling is the jury wants to convict on the “gun charges” (that’s what the article referenced, doesn’t say what that means) but acquitted him on the shooting.
The victim is being punished! He is recieving a felony for protecting himself just because it took place in a building. And that dumb youtuber was rewarded by having his followers almost double after the fact, which equates to more money, while the victim is sitting in jail.
The only weird part about the ruling is the jury wants to convict on the “gun charges” (that’s what the article referenced, doesn’t say what that means) but acquitted him on the shooting.
The original three charges (I don’t know if any were modified later) were “aggravated malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and discharging a firearm within a building”. In Virginia, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony acts as a multiplier charge for malicious wounding. My guess is that he was acquitted of malicious wounding and use of a firearm in commission of a felony, and convicted of discharging a firearm inside a building.
Did you read the article? It seems not.
This is such a bad ruling.
It’s not a ruling. That’s what judges do. This was a verdict, which is returned by a jury.
Okay? Im not a lawyer, so whats your point.
Aim higher next time
Or lower
Although I don’t like the guy pulling the pranks, he should not have gotten shot. A gun is a weapon of last resort. The consequences are irreversible.
Would I liked to have seen him get pepper sprayed, punched, or tazed though? Hell yeah!
I mean, he got shot and he’s recovered so… in this case the consequences were definitely reversible.
I wouldn’t be surpised if he had complications from that for the rest of his life.
Pulling out a gun should have a VERY HIGH bar. This kid is clearly an idiot but was the bar high enough to kill him?
From the description of the incident, it definitely sounded like he feared for his life. A 6 foot something guy keeps advancing on him, asking why he’s thinking of the guy’s penis. He tells the guy to leave him alone multiple times, but the guy keeps advancing. He retreats multiple times, but the guy keeps at it. He even tries knocking the phone out of the guy’s hand, but the guy keeps at it.
It definitely sounds like the guy was afraid of where this was going and tried all of the non-lethal options (retreat, tell the person to stop) before resorting to pulling out his gun. The YouTube “pranker” has nobody to blame but himself. He should have stopped when asked instead of repeatedly pressing the defendant for a YouTube “prank” video.
(I use “prank” in quotes because I don’t consider this type of thing a real prank. It’s just a guy acting like an idiot and calling it “a prank.” A real prank should leave all involved laughing when it’s revealed, not leave one person fearing for their life.)
From the description of the incident, it definitely sounded like he feared for his life.
No it fucking doesn’t. The whole thing lasted less than 30 seconds and the driver never tried to retreat. He told the prankster no a few times, tried to swat the phone out of his hands, and then shot him. It’s not shocking that the jury had a difficult time coming up with a verdict.
The driver did try to retreat:
In the video, Colie says “stop” three different times and tries to back away from Cook, who continues to advance.
Well like the article said, he fucked up by shooting immediately after drawing the weapon, instead of giving Cook (the YouTuber) a chance to see the gun and finally back off. I agree with their decision to keep him in jail because of that one simple fact. The guy should have warned him that he was going to shoot if Cook didn’t back down.
This is wrong and will firmly land you on the wrong side of the law in many places. Pulling a gun is a last resort to defend yourself when de-escalation doesn’t work. You pull the gun when you’ve already determined that you have to fire it. Otherwise you’re just escalating and making the situation more dangerous for yourself and any bystanders. This is also why I don’t carry a gun in the first place even though I might legally be allowed to.
Hey I never said that he should draw the gun before the warning. Warn first, then draw if they still keep advancing.
Brandishing a firearm can be illegal even if you don’t draw it.
I get what you’re saying, but even just making the threat without pulling a weapon is enough to get a charge in some places. In any case I don’t think we should be carrying guns around in our day to day as if it was normal anyway. It’s kind of like wearing a rubber suit all the time because you’re worried about lightning strikes.
Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Can’t fathom you people that don’t get this.
Are you living somewhere abnormally dangerous? You are far more likely to use it when it isn’t needed. It’s the worse bet for most people and if you can’t understand that then your fear is blinding you. This is like someone with OCD saying it’s better to wash their hands constantly “just in case”. Sure maybe you don’t wash your hands for the 20th time one day and catch ebola, but more likely you just destroy your hands over time.
He was in a public food court at a mall during lunch
Oh true. Violent acts had never happened in a food court before! /s
Okay, but the only violent act that happened in this case was the shooting of the prankster idiot.
And?
So was Dominic Billa.
I’ve been robbed at a busy, open public library with a gaggle of elementary kids literally 15ft away. Being in public ain’t the deterrent you think it is.
Running a youtube prank channel should justify a drone strike.
What would you have done in that situation?
Walked away, if necessary run away? Maybe throw a punch?
He did try to back away. And punching someone significantly larger than oneself is generally unwise.
He didn’t continue to back away. He didn’t run. Punching someone bigger is unwise, but not as unwise as trying to kill someone who arguably didn’t even commit a crime.
I am not a lawyer. So everything I say could be wrong and every state is different but generally I think there’s a five point test for claims of self defense: Avoidance, Innocence, Imminence, Proportionality, and Reasonableness.
Avoidance is moot because I think this is Virginia and I think they have a no-retreat provision. Innocence is just that you didn’t willingly engage in a fight that got out of control. So that applies. Imminence applies because it happened in the moment. I just don’t see how Proportionality applies here. I just don’t see how holding a cell phone is proportional to a shooting. Emotionally I get it that the YouTuber is a major jerkwad and may have deserved a comeuppance. But I don’t think the jury followed the law.
I’m not a lawyer. Everything I said there could be wrong
I kinda waver on reasonableness for cases like this but I generally think using a weapon against an unarmed aggressor is reasonable when there is a significant size disparity or a disability or something like that. In this case the “prankster” was significantly larger and had a group of friends with him so I don’t think it’s out of the question that the use of a gun for defense is reasonable in this situation.
If the defendant has been carrying a less lethal self defense measure, such as a taser, mace, or a baton, and had used that to defend himself, would you see that as more proportional?
I honestly don’t know. Emotionally I agree with the verdict but intellectually I question it.
Looks like someone has paid attention to Andrew Branca @ The Law of Self Defense.
No I’ve never heard of him. I just quickly researched self defense law.
I’m happy he didn’t die over this, but I’m also kind of happy he got a little fucked up over it.
I tend to think about these situations with small people as the initial victim. How far should a smaller person or woman let something go before they can defend themselves? If the person is way, way bigger, do you just have to let yourself get beat?
He’s still making videos, so apparently he didn’t actually learn anything from the experience
I honestly don’t know what the right answer is here. I don’t like that it seems like it’s easier to shoot someone because of a threatening feeling. This makes me think of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. People will say these are completely unrelated cases but both involved a shooting and a claim of self defense. Again I don’t know what the answer is.
In that one I think ol’ zimmy kinda deserved it and I wasn’t happy with the charges/trial results.
I don’t think it’s the same at all, though. Zimmerman was the OG aggressor. He fucked around, found out and got butthurt and killed a kid.
No one was killed, so…
the whole point of firearms is that it’s deadly force. you can’t fire one at a person without being ready to take their life because it’s always a likely outcome.
But no one was killed. You can’t put a person in jail for shooting at someone else assuming that their intent was to kill.
This is coming from someone who despise the idea of owning a gun.
Shooting at someone is intending to kill them.
Source?
I would have thought it common sense, but sure: https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/use-force-continuum
Firearms are at the bottom, under lethal force. There is no way to use firearms to be less-lethal.
Understood. I know that firearms can kill. Stabbing too.
But not every use of a firearm is with the intent to kill. Someone could just shoot to a foot or a hand. Foolish? Sure. Intent to kill? Nah.
But no one was killed
That’s just luck.
An inch either way that bullet could have been fatal.
You can certainly put them in jail for attempted murder. And that doesn’t require proving they intended to kill that person, it only requires “conscious disregard” of whether their action could kill someone. For example, randomly shooting into someone’s house.
I guess not according to Lemmy, lol. I don’t care if the youtuber was. the size of Shaq, you can’t just shoot someone for showing a phone in your face not even if he is following you.
This sounds like jury nullification more than an actual legal judgment.
I know everyone loves when YouTube pranksters get whats coming but shooting someone over a mild annoyance is never a good thing. This is why america seems fucking nuts to anyone that doesn’t live there.
Somebody approaching you, even though you’re trying to move away and telling them to stop, is not a “mild annoyance”. It’s dangerous because weapons are so freely available. It would be better if they weren’t, but while they are, you shouldn’t do something like this.
It’s not enough to shoot someone in any civilised country.
It’s important to realize that the confrontation lasted 30 seconds. That’s the amount of time he waited before almost killing someone.
He wasn’t being chased in a dark alley or stalked for half a hour, someone played loud noises in his face and it took a total of 30 seconds for him to decide to shoot someone over it. Literally insane.
It is in a civilized country where you have to assume everyone has a gun.
It’s important to realize that the confrontation lasted 30 seconds. That’s the amount of time he waited before almost killing someone.
Yes, I do realise that, and I did realise it when I wrote my initial comment. What is your point? That someone can’t become dangerous towards you if your interaction lasts 30 seconds or less?
He wasn’t being chased in a dark alley and stalked for half a hour, someone played loud noises in his face and it took a total of 30 seconds for him to decide to shoot someone over it. Literally insane.
See, if your point only makes sense due to leaving out important details, it’s not a good point. He wasn’t shot because “someone played loud noises in his face”.
a civilized country where you have to assume everyone has a gun.
One of these things is not like the other
Ah yes, let’s circlejerk around the definition of “civilization”.
For the record, I’m not American (thank god!), but this is neither funny nor useful.
It is factual tho.
Then provide the factual basis. What definition of “civilization” excludes societies with loose gun laws?
30 seconds is a long time for someone to be harassing you. I can see why it escalated.
But it still doesn’t justify deadly force. That’s a last resort.
He also did not warn the person.
Say: “Stop or I’ll shoot.”
If the person keeps coming at you after you say that, you can infer their intent to do serious harm.
Have to have a fact to hang your hat on, or you end up charged, and need to get massively lucky, like this dude, to avoid prison.
It’s dangerous, it’s not an imminent danger to life and limb.
If you’re about to catch a beating, you can’t just shoot.
The police, prosecution, judge, and half the jury, and me, think this conduct exceeded any right of self defense the dude had.
No question he could.lawfully have maced him or punched him and there’d have been no charge. But to try and kill the guy?
The jury apparently fucked it up by rendering an inconsistent verdict on the sole conviction. It’s dangerous when the jury says it’s deadlocked. It generally means someone in the room isn’t being reasonable, or is not following the judge’s instructions. And it resulted with inconsistent verdicts.
If you’re about to catch a beating, you can’t just shoot.
What if they beat you to death. Can you shoot then?
Ask any female friends or relatives of yours how they would feel if a 6’5” man continued to approach them and ask what they thought of his penis. See if they think it’s a mild annoyance.
My wife is 5’2". She’s been physically pushed around by a man in the past. I’m 5’11" and if I get upset at her, she will cower. If I advanced on her threateningly, she would panic. If a stranger who was half a foot larger than me did, she would absolutely fear for her safety.
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Yet they all line up trying to get in.
Sure, everyone wants to get to America. Except that more Americans are trying to move to many first world countries than the other way around. Kinda makes you think, right?
Believe it or not, turning every country into Britain isn’t as appealing as some of you seem to think.
If the only good thing about your culture is the use of weapons, your culture isn’t as appealing as you think.
youhave statistics on americans leaving vs immigrants coming in? curious about it.
I was specifically talking about net migration with individual countries. You can usually find the statistics for a specific country, I don’t know of a good overview for all.
Yet they all line up trying to get in.
There’s ~7.6 billion out of the ~8 billion people in existence who are not in nor lining up to get in.
Another thread, another demonstration of majority Lemmy users being fucking insane… depressing.
