Video: Delivery driver found not guilty in shooting of YouTube prankster in mall food court



A jury found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster in a mall food court in Virginia.

On Thursday, a jury acquitted Alan Colie, 31, of aggravated malicious wounding and malicious shooting inside an occupied building in the shooting of 21-year-old Tanner Cook. The jury found Colie guilty of using a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Colie pleaded not guilty and said he was acting in self-defense. Colie has a license to carry a concealed weapon.

Since the April shooting, Colie has been incarcerated and will remain in jail. Colie is due back in court on Oct. 19.

On April 2, Cook and another individual approached Colie at the food court in the Dulles Town Center in Sterling, Virginia. Colie, a driver with DoorDash, was picking up a food order. Cook gets in the face of Colie and pushes a phone within inches of the delivery driver. The phone repeatedly plays an audio message: "Hey dips**t, quit thinking about my twinkle."

Video shows Colie retreating from the situation, swatting at the phone, and telling Cook to "stop" on three different occasions. However, Cook continues to pursue him. Suddenly, Colie pulls out a gun and shoots Cook.

As TheBlaze previously reported, Colie shot Cook, and the bullet punctured his stomach and liver. Cook has since been discharged from the hospital.

Prosecutor Eden Holmes said she didn't believe that Colie was in imminent danger and said he didn't act in self-defense.

"They were playing a silly phrase on a phone," Holmes said. "How could the defendant have found that he was reasonably in fear of imminent bodily harm?"

The bizarre encounter was part of a YouTube prank. Cook runs the "Classified Goons" YouTube channel that has more than 50,000 subscribers, and often engages in public confrontations with negative outcomes. The videos include fake vomiting on Uber drivers, taking people's groceries, breaking store merchandise in front of employees, and impersonating security guards.

Cook said he will continue to make "prank" videos on YouTube, which he earns as much as $3,000 a month.

Tanner's father, Jeramy Cook, told WUSA, "Right after this shooting, 'Saturday Night Live' reported on their Weekend Update that a YouTuber doing a prank video at a Virginia mall was shot, then paused, starred into the camera and said, 'Good.' Everyone laughed, so millions of people saw this and just went with it."

The father added, "So is it open season on YouTubers even if they don't touch or talk to you. It's cool to just shoot them no matter what the facts are?"

"Mob is more important than the rule of law," he stated. "This is the real danger for all of us."

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Jury acquits delivery driver of main charge in Dulles Town Center shooting of YouTube prankster www.youtube.com

Belgian man faked his own death, then showed up at his funeral in helicopter to teach family a 'life lesson'



A TikTok content creator played a prank on his family by faking his own death and showing up to his funeral. The Belgian prankster claimed that he intentionally deceived his family in order to teach them a "life lesson."

TikToker David Baerten, known as Ragnar le Fou on social media, pulled off the controversial stunt with the help of his wife and children. His immediate family notified people on social media that Baerten died.

According to The Times U.K., one of his daughters said on TikTok, "Rest in peace Daddy. I will never stop thinking about you. Why is life so unfair? Why you? You were going to be a grandfather, and you still had your whole life ahead of you. I love you! We love you! We will never forget you."

Last weekend, the family held a funeral near the city of Liege, Belgium. Dozens of friends and family attended the funeral dressed in all black. Suddenly, a helicopter swooped in and landed as people waited for the funeral to start.

The supposed "dead man" and a camera crew exited the helicopter.

"Cheers to you all, welcome to my funeral," Baerten told the mourners.

Baerten told the funeral attendees, "I did this to start my life again with you."

A man is seen on the viral video crying and hugging Baerten.

The 45-year-old social media influencer said he faked his own death because he felt his extended family neglected him.

"What I see in my family often hurts me," Baerten said. "I never get invited to anything. Nobody sees me. We all grew apart. I felt unappreciated. That’s why I wanted to give them a life lesson and show them that you shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them."

Baerten noted that some friends and family didn't show up to his funeral, saying, "Only half of my family came to the funeral."

“That proves who really cares about me,” he said. “Those who didn’t come, did contact me to meet up. So in a way I did win.”

He added, "It's when we're alive that we need to hear these things."

Belgian TikToker rocks up to his own funeral in helicopter after faking death www.youtube.com

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White House answered fake reporter's questions for weeks before press corps exposed her to be 'Lego' video gamer



An online video game player was able to infiltrate the White House press corps by pretending to be a political reporter. The fake reporter was even able to submit questions to the Biden administration through the press corps, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki answered the imposter's questions for weeks.

An online persona posed as a reporter named "Kacey Montagu" for the Daily Mail, a British tabloid best known for celebrity gossip. There were Twitter and LinkedIn accounts dedicated to "Kacey Montagu," plus she was named as the chief political correspondent for White House News, a fictional website.

From Politico:

Montagu's play-acting as a White House reporter goes back at least to December, when he or she set up @WHschedule on Twitter. They repeatedly referenced the "schedule" account in emails as a primary duty. In March, they began sending tweets from @WHpoolreport. The accounts are rudimentary repostings of two sources of information reporters regularly consume: the president, first lady, vice president, and second gentleman's daily schedules and the so-called pool reports, which are real time dispatches from a small group of journalists tasked with following around those principals during the course of the day and reporting back to the rest of the press corps on their movements and utterances.

The accounts got attention from insiders, who quickly came to rely on their speed and efficiency. @WHSchedule had a following of more than 1,300, including several White House correspondents (some working at POLITICO). The new @WHPoolReport account amassed more than 600 in a few weeks' time, including some who work in the administration like Michael LaRosa, press secretary for Jill Biden and Symone Sanders, a senior advisor and chief spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The person behind the imposter contacted the White House Correspondents Association about being becoming a pool reporter and inquired about applying for a day pass to cover the White House in person.

"Kacey Montagu" was given access to cover COVID-19 government press briefings, but was not called upon.

Montagu regularly sent in questions for the White House press corps to ask Psaki, adding that she wasn't able to be there in person "due to social distancing regulations." Montagu was able to hoodwink White House reporters, including from The Plain Dealerand CQ Roll Call, to ask Psaki numerous questions "about everything from COVID-19 travel bans, to coming ambassadorships, to Biden's reaction to Microsoft being hacked."

"In at least one instance, a White House official was connected with Montagu to circle back with more information when they had it," Politico reported.

Some White House reporters researched "Kacey Montagu," who had a deactivated LinkedIn account with a profile photo of U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson eating an ice cream cone, and they became suspicious.

During Thursday's daily White House press briefing, Washington Blade White House Reporter Chris Johnson asked Psaki the question, "How involved is former President Obama and First Lady Obama in the Biden – Harris administration? Is President Biden seeking to bring back the often bipartisan portrait unveiling events at the White House?"

The question was planted by Montagu.

Mediaite investigated Kacey Montagu, and discovered that she "appears to be a gag persona for a former Secretary of State made of Legos."

"The Montagu website's FAQ section describes her as 'An American Citizen. Former Secretary of State, Mayor, Senator, President Pro Tempore and Speaker of the House,' and her political views as 'President Trump 2024, baby! I'm a Conservative,'" the outlet wrote on Thursday.

Politico found that the person behind the "Kacey Montagu" persona was actually a Lego video gamer.

"They believe Montagu's White House moonlighting began as something to boast about in the online global gaming platform called ROBLOX, where users jokingly call themselves 'Legos,'" according to Politico. "Within that platform is a role-playing group called nUSA, where people from across the world engage in a mock U.S. government exercise. At one point, Montagu had adopted the role of Secretary of State but resigned from that job after — as they recalled — 'the [nUSA] President went to war with some U.K. and I thought it was a pretty bad idea!'"

The prankster explained her motivation for the fake White House reporter profiles, "I created them as some fun but also to ensure that people know what is going on — they should be able to know what POTUS and V.P. is doing and I think the account following shows people are interested in that."

"I love journalism, and I think the press corps is doing a pretty bad job at the moment, so I decided I would ensure some transparency and ask some questions me and some friends wanted the answer to," the hoaxer told the outlet.

The White House declined to comment on the situation.