LEESBURG, Va. — After two days of testimony, the man who shot a 21-year-old YouTuber inside Dulles Town Center on video in April has been found not guilty on two charges of malicious wounding.
The jury found Alan Colie not guilty of aggravated malicious wounding or use of a firearm for aggravated malicious wounding, however, he was found guilty of firing a gun inside the mall. That guilty verdict has been set aside until a hearing to discuss it on October 19.
Colie, a DoorDash driver, was on trial for shooting Tanner Cook, the man behind the YouTube channel “Classified Goons,” at the Dulles Town Center back in April. Colie admitted to shooting Cook when he took the stand Wednesday but claimed it was self-defense.
The case went viral not because there was a shooting inside a mall, but because Cook is known to make prank videos. Cook amassed 55,000 subscribers with an average income of up to $3,000 per month. He said he elicits responses to entertain viewers and called his pranks “comedy content.”
Colie faced three charges, including aggravated malicious wounding, malicious discharge of a firearm within an occupied dwelling, and use of firearm for aggravated malicious wounding. The jury had to weigh different factors including if Colie had malicious intent and had reasonable fear of imminent danger of bodily harm.
Cook was in the courtroom when jurors were shown footage of him getting shot near the stomach – a video that has not yet been made public. Cook’s mother, however, left the courtroom to avoid watching the key piece of evidence in her son’s shooting.
The footage was recorded by one of Cook’s friends, who was helping to record a prank video for Cook’s channel. The video shows Cook holding his phone near Colie’s ear and using Google Translate to play a phrase out loud four times, while Colie backed away.
When he testified, Colie recalled how Cook and his friend approached him from behind and put the phone about 6 inches away from his face. He described feeling confused by the phrase Cook was playing. Colie told the jury the two looked “really cold and angry.” He also acknowledged carrying a gun during work as a way to protect himself after seeing reports of other delivery service drivers being robbed.
“Colie walked into the mall to do his job with no intention of interacting with Tanner Cook. None,” Adam Pouilliard, Colie’s defense attorney, said. "He’s sitting next to his defense attorneys right now. How’s that for a consequence?”
The Commonwealth argued that Cook was never armed, never placed hands on Colie and never posed a threat. They stressed that just because Cook may not seem like a saint or his occupation makes him appear undesirable, that a conviction is warranted.
“We don’t like our personal space invaded, but that does not justify the ability to shoot someone in a public space during an interaction that lasted for only 20 seconds,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Eden Holmes said.
The jury began deliberating around 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Shortly after 3:30 p.m., the jury came back saying they were divided and couldn’t come to a resolution. The judge instructed them to continue deliberating and later returned with the not-guilty verdict.
WUSA9 caught up with the Cook family following the verdict. When we asked Tanner Cook how he felt about the outcome, he said it is all up to God.
“I really don’t care, I mean it is what it is,” he said. “It’s God’s plan at the end of the day.”
His mother, Marla Elam, said the family respects the jury and that the Cook family is just thankful Tanner is alive.
“Nothing else matters right now,” she said.
Here’s the video by NBC Washington, apologies that it’s served by Discord
Playing a cellphone by your ear does not justify deadly force in any mind but the absolute most deludedly paranoid.
The jury has shown the state of the average American these days.
Chasing someone, inches away, staring dead into their eyes, while someone sneaks up from behind and they keep telling you to fuck off - is assault.
You only call this a prank because you’ve spent no time imagining it from the victim’s perspective. He had no goddamn idea what was going on. All visual and physical cues were deliberately engineered to cause confusion and fear and provoke a reaction.
This was assault.
Literally nothing you said justified pulling out a gun in the middle of a fucking mall and immediately trying to kill someone with it.
You’re fucked in the head if you think that your paranoia justifies deadly force.
Fear of harm is the only thing that justifies doing harm.
No, actual potential harm is what justifies it. Everyone’s brain is fallible, you have a duty to not immediately respond to fear with deadly force.
Hindsight being the thing that comes beforehand, right?
Please look up theory-of-mind. Apparently it will be new to you.
If you are going to pull out your gun and fire it at the first delusion you have, then you are responsible for the decision of choosing to carry a gun.
He did everything necessary to de-escalate, in the brief window you keep pounding the table about.
His assailants refused to stop and maintained threatening proximity.
He exercised force in a way that ended the situation without killing anyone.
Scream into the void about it, for all I care.
Keep justifying a paranoid life in a shithole country and pretending like the rest of the world doesn’t live better if it helps you sleep at night.