A YouTuber was making a prank video in a Virginia mall. He said the prankee took it badly and shot him.

[Stevicus]

MSN

• A YouTuber was shot in the abdomen while recording a prank video at a Virginia mall on Sunday.
• Tanner Cook of Classified Goons said the shooting suspect didn't take the joke "very well."
• Cook, who was in intensive care, said he will continue to make prank videos after his recovery.

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."

His father told Insider that a detective on the case told him that Cook's prank involved Google translate and Cook was "asking a guy some questions and had his phone in his face and he didn't appreciate it."

Cook, whose YouTube account has almost 40,000 subscribers, regularly posts videos of himself playing pranks on unsuspecting members of the public.

"So what happened was he got offended and decided to shoot my son because he was offended at what my son was doing. And so, I just think there's a greater issue here with too many people being offended, rightly or wrongly, and then going out of control," he said.

The father added that he's received multiple hate-filled messages online from people who believe his son deserved to have been shot.

"It's just nasty and terrible," he said. "I just don't understand how people can think that, in the world we live in, if you're offended, gives you a right to go do things — up to killing somebody if you're offended."

Cook's father, however, told Insider that he forgives the shooter.

This whole story bugs me, all the way around. The most obvious thing is the guy with a gun shooting someone over a practical joke, but what's with someone going around making videos of practical jokes on unsuspecting strangers in public? That's pretty messed up, too. Why do that? Why not just leave people alone? Some people don't really have a sense of humor, and many don't have time to joke around. The few who are already on edge and trigger happy shouldn't really be messed with. I generally assume that to be the case with everyone I meet nowadays. Practical jokes are fine among people you know, but never with strangers.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Well, it used to be that you could safely assume that pulling a prank wouldn't end with violence - especially gunshots - but since civilization has died, I suppose that's not the case anymore. It's not the fault of the prankster for assuming we still have some semblance of a functioning society.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

MSN

This whole story bugs me, all the way around. The most obvious thing is the guy with a gun shooting someone over a practical joke, but what's with someone going around making videos of practical jokes on unsuspecting strangers in public? That's pretty messed up, too. Why do that? Why not just leave people alone? Some people don't really have a sense of humor, and many don't have time to joke around. The few who are already on edge and trigger happy shouldn't really be messed with. I generally assume that to be the case with everyone I meet nowadays. Practical jokes are fine among people you know, but never with strangers.

but what's with someone going around making videos of practical jokes on unsuspecting strangers in public? That's pretty messed up, too. Why do that? Why not just leave people alone?
Because someone being goofy and failing to read the room, just two decades ago, would've simply ended with a punch to the face. We live in times where society has lost its sense of humor and lives in fear and violence. We can't let society remain in this state of paranoia.

 

[We Never Know]

but what's with someone going around making videos of practical jokes on unsuspecting strangers in public? That's pretty messed up, too. Why do that? Why not just leave people alone?
Because someone being goofy and failing to read the room, just two decades ago, would've simply ended with a punch to the face. We live in times where society has lost its sense of humor and lives in fear and violence. We can't let society remain in this state of paranoia.

"just two decades ago, would've simply ended with a punch to the face"

Two decades ago fist fights ended when one got whooped. Now days guns are broke out over fist fights.(that punch in the face)

 

[We Never Know]

MSN

This whole story bugs me, all the way around. The most obvious thing is the guy with a gun shooting someone over a practical joke, but what's with someone going around making videos of practical jokes on unsuspecting strangers in public? That's pretty messed up, too. Why do that? Why not just leave people alone? Some people don't really have a sense of humor, and many don't have time to joke around. The few who are already on edge and trigger happy shouldn't really be messed with. I generally assume that to be the case with everyone I meet nowadays. Practical jokes are fine among people you know, but never with strangers.

"His father told Insider that a detective on the case told him that Cook's prank involved Google translate and Cook was "asking a guy some questions and had his phone in his face and he didn't appreciate it."

I'm guessing there is more to it than that but shooting the dude is crazy.