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A YouTuber was shot in the abdomen while recording a prank video at a Virginia mall on Sunday.
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Tanner Cook of Classified Goons said the shooting suspect didn’t take the joke “very well.”
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Cook, who was in intensive care, said he will continue to make prank videos after his recovery.
A 21-year-old man said he was recording a practical joke for his YouTube channel in a mall in Dulles, Virginia, when a prankee got mad and shot him in the abdomen.
Tanner Cook, a prankster on the YouTube page Classified Goons, was in intensive care on Sunday after a bullet pierced his stomach and liver, according to the CBS News affiliate station WUSA.
He remains in a hospital following surgery.
Speaking to WUSA from his hospital bed, Cook said: “I was playing a prank, a simple practical joke, and this guy didn’t take it very well and shot me.”
Cook, whose YouTube account has almost 40,000 subscribers, regularly posts videos of him playing pranks on unsuspecting members of the public.
Previous videos show him going behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant, trailing strangers in stores, and pretending to vomit on Uber drivers.
In earlier videos his victims became aggressive and even called the police
But on Sunday Cook got his most shocking response yet. He and his friend were recording a prank video near the Cheesecake Factory in Dulles Town Center mall’s food court when the suspect, Alan Colie, allegedly pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and shot him.
Cook’s family told WUSA the footage is now part of the evidence against Colie, 31, who was charged with aggravated malicious wounding, shooting in the commission of a felony, and discharging firearms within an occupied building.
Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that it doesn’t appear that the suspect and the victim knew each other previously.
Colie appeared in court on Monday and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for May. He’s being held without bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center, the sheriff’s office said.
Cook was not publicly identified by name by police, but court documents identify him as the victim of the shooting.
Despite his injuries, Cook told WUSA that he intends to continue making prank videos.
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