A jury on Thursday found a delivery driver not guilty of shooting 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 21-year-old Tanner Cook, who runs the YouTube channel ‘Classified Goons’.
However, the jury was divided over two lesser firearms cases and decided to convict him on one and acquit him on the other.
The April 2 shooting at the food court in downtown Dulles, about 45 minutes west of the nation’s capital, caused panic as shoppers fled what they feared was a mass shooting.
Colie pleaded not guilty, saying he acted in self-defense.
The verdict was delivered on Thursday after approximately five hours of deliberation. Three hours later, the jury sent a note saying it was “divided on whether the suspect acted in self-defense.”
Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Snow called the jury back to the courtroom around 3:30 p.m. and urged them to continue deliberations, a standard admonition given to juries that indicate they are deadlocked.
At the end of the day, the jury then delivered its verdict.
Colie’s attorney, Adam Pouilliard, said the firearms conviction is against the law, given Colie’s acquittal on self-defense grounds. He asked the judge to annul the conviction. A judge will hear arguments on the issue at a hearing next month.
Colie, who has been in custody since his arrest in April, will remain in custody.
Pouilliard said during closing arguments Thursday that his client felt threatened by the 6-foot-2 Cook during the confrontation, which was intended to provoke a reaction and draw viewers to Cook’s YouTube channel.
Cook, Pouilliard said, “is trying to confuse people by posting videos. He’s not afraid of scaring people. He continues to do this.”
Jurors saw video of the shooting, which showed the confrontation between Cook and Colie lasting less than 30 seconds. The footage shows Cook approaching Colie while picking up a food order. Cook looms over Colie as he holds a cell phone about six inches from Colie’s face. The phone broadcasts the phrase “Hey dips…, stop thinking about my twinkle” several times through a Google Translate app.
In the video, Colie says “stop” three times and tries to pull away from Cook, who continues to advance. Colie tries to punch the phone out of his face before pulling out a gun and shooting Cook in the lower left chest. There is no pause between the moment he draws the gun and fires the shot.
Prosecutor Eden Holmes said the facts do not support a self-defense argument. The law requires that Colie reasonably fear that he was in imminent danger of bodily harm, and that he not use more force than necessary. She said Cook’s joke was bizarre but not threatening.
“They played a funny phrase on a phone,” she said. “How could the suspect have established that he was reasonably afraid of imminent physical harm?”
The charges of aggravated malicious wounding and malicious discharge of a firearm also require the jury to find Colie acted with malice.
If the jury finds that Colie responded to a provocation that reasonably aroused fear or anger, then there would be no malice under the law.
Colie, who has been jailed since his April arrest, testified in his own defense about the fear Cook’s prank inspired. Pouilliard said during closing arguments that Colie is aware of the dangers delivery drivers may face when interacting with the public, and that he is licensed to carry a concealed weapon.
Cook’s “Classified Goons” channel, which has more than 50,000 subscribers, is full of obnoxious stunts, like pretending to throw up on Uber drivers and following unsuspecting customers through department stores. During a preliminary hearing, sheriff’s deputies said they were well aware of Cook and had received calls about previous stunts.
Cook said he continues to make the videos, which earn him between $2,000 and $3,000 a month.