Featured on Sep 29, 2023 by Null: Man ACQUITTED of "aggravated malicious wounding" for shooting YouTube prankster Tanner Cook.
By The Associated Press
“LEESBURG, Va. — A jury on Thursday found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who followed him around a mall food court earlier this year.
Alan Colie, 31, was acquitted of aggravated malicious wounding in the shooting of Tanner Cook, 21, who runs the “Classified Goons” YouTube channel.
The jury was split though on two lesser firearms counts, and decided to convict him on one and acquit him on the other.
The April 2 shooting at the food court in Dulles Town Center, about 45 minutes west of the nation’s capital, set off panic as shoppers fled what they feared to be a mass shooting.
— Tanner Cook.
Colie pleaded not guilty and said he was acting in self defense.
The verdict came Thursday after about five hours of deliberation. Three hours in, the jury sent out a note saying it was “divided in terms of whether the defendant acted in self defense.”
Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Snow called the jury back into the courtroom around 3:30 p.m. and urged them to continue deliberations, a standard admonition given to juries that indicate they are deadlocked.
The jury then delivered its verdicts at the end of the day.
Colie’s defense attorney, Adam Pouilliard, said the conviction on the firearms charge is inconsistent with the law, given Colie’s acquittal on self defense grounds. He asked the judge to set aside the conviction. A judge will hear arguments on the issue at a hearing next month.
Colie, who has been in custody since his April arrest, will remain incarcerated.
Pouilliard said during Thursday’s closing arguments that his client felt menaced by the 6-foot-5 Cook during the confrontation, which was designed to provoke a reaction and to draw viewers to Cook’s YouTube channel.
Cook, Pouilliard said, “is trying to confuse people to post videos. He’s not worried that he’s scaring people. He keeps doing this.””
Here’s the video
“LEESBURG, Va. — A jury on Thursday found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who followed him around a mall food court earlier this year.
Alan Colie, 31, was acquitted of aggravated malicious wounding in the shooting of Tanner Cook, 21, who runs the “Classified Goons” YouTube channel.
The jury was split though on two lesser firearms counts, and decided to convict him on one and acquit him on the other.
The April 2 shooting at the food court in Dulles Town Center, about 45 minutes west of the nation’s capital, set off panic as shoppers fled what they feared to be a mass shooting.
— Tanner Cook.
Colie pleaded not guilty and said he was acting in self defense.
The verdict came Thursday after about five hours of deliberation. Three hours in, the jury sent out a note saying it was “divided in terms of whether the defendant acted in self defense.”
Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Snow called the jury back into the courtroom around 3:30 p.m. and urged them to continue deliberations, a standard admonition given to juries that indicate they are deadlocked.
The jury then delivered its verdicts at the end of the day.
Colie’s defense attorney, Adam Pouilliard, said the conviction on the firearms charge is inconsistent with the law, given Colie’s acquittal on self defense grounds. He asked the judge to set aside the conviction. A judge will hear arguments on the issue at a hearing next month.
Colie, who has been in custody since his April arrest, will remain incarcerated.
Pouilliard said during Thursday’s closing arguments that his client felt menaced by the 6-foot-5 Cook during the confrontation, which was designed to provoke a reaction and to draw viewers to Cook’s YouTube channel.
Cook, Pouilliard said, “is trying to confuse people to post videos. He’s not worried that he’s scaring people. He keeps doing this.””
Here’s the video
