A 21-Year-old YouTuber Is Recovering After He Pranked The Wrong One At A Mall And Got Shot

Tanner Cook is a 21-year-old from Virginia who enjoys doing things for attention on the internet (what historians will refer to as the “viral moment“). In his quest to become the next Johnny Knoxville or Jake Paul, Tanner and his band of merry men, the Classified Goons on YouTube, enjoy pulling a little prank here and there, all in the name of fun. But on one fateful day at the Dulles Town Center in Sterling, VA, the fun came to an abrupt end when one of Tanner’s pranks lead to a bullet being introduced into his body. And that’s where the laughter stopped.

Let us begin with a bit of context on Tanner’s contribution to the worlds of both cinema AND pranking. BEHOLD! Here’s one of his videos harassing folks who should have probably body-slammed him years ago so he could avoid the impending tragedy set for his future.

In case you couldn’t sit through the whole thing, Tanner is annoying as hell. And People reports that last weekend, a man by the name of Alan W. Colie was so annoyed by Tanner that he shot him. What a reasonable reaction.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office received reports of shots fired at the Dulles Town Center in Sterling, Virginia, just before noon local time on Sunday, police said in a release. Officers were at the mall within three minutes and found a man who had been shot in the stomach. He was treated on the scene before being rushed to a local hospital.

Alan W. Colie, 31, was arrested on Sunday and charged with “aggravated malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and discharging a firearm within a building,” said police. “The shooting resulted from an interaction between the victim and Colie in the food court.”

Thankfully, Tanner did not sustain life-threatening injuries and was taken to the hospital. Local news outlet WUSA9 caught up with Tanner to see exactly what the hell went wrong.

“I was playing a prank and a simple practical joke, and this guy didn’t take it very well,” Tanner told the news station. “He didn’t say anything to me.”

The YouTuber’s father Jeramy Cook also spoke about the incident, telling the outlet, “They were making a video at the mall and trying to have fun with people and this guy wasn’t having fun. There was a phone that was around him and they were interviewing or talking to him, and he didn’t like it and he pulled out his gun and shot my son.”

Tanner’s brush with death did not result in obtaining common sense because he says he will continue making prank videos. In the game of Fuck Around And Find Out, there are really no winners, but Tanner probably thinks that he won (see: all the attention he’s gotten over this).

Pic: YouTube