Tanner Cook, a YouTuber with a notable following, is recovering in a Virginia hospital after being shot while filming a video at a mall over the weekend. Cook has a history of “pranking” people and posting the videos on YouTube.
The shooting occurred at the Dulles Town Center Mall food court on Sunday. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office arrested the shooter, charging Alan Colie, 31, of Leesburg, Virginia.
Cook’s father, Jeramy Cook, described his son as a “good kid” to Fox News Digital.
Video captured by @VAhiphopandnews shows officers responding shortly after the shooting.
Tanner’s YouTube channel, Classified Goons, is controversial. Tanner has received multiple complaints, and more than once police have been called to stop his filming. His “pranks” include dressing as a clown and riding around a grocery store in handicapped scooters and accusing people in PetSmart of stealing animals.
Cook reports receiving numerous threatening messages since the shooting. One angry sender wrote to his father: “Your son deserved to be shot because he was harassing and assaulting others in public.”
Another threatened: “There’s millions of us out there. Don’t mess with us.”
Jeramy told WUSA9 that his son was “just out there being goofy.” His family is praying for Tanner’s swift recovery.
Tanner told the outlet he was “playing a prank and a simple practical joke, and this guy didn’t take it very well.”
Authorities have charged the shooter with aggravated malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and discharging a firearm within a building.
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