A jury has found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who was following him around a mall food court earlier this year
A jury has found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who was following him around a mall food court earlier this year
From the description of the incident, it definitely sounded like he feared for his life. A 6 foot something guy keeps advancing on him, asking why he’s thinking of the guy’s penis. He tells the guy to leave him alone multiple times, but the guy keeps advancing. He retreats multiple times, but the guy keeps at it. He even tries knocking the phone out of the guy’s hand, but the guy keeps at it.
It definitely sounds like the guy was afraid of where this was going and tried all of the non-lethal options (retreat, tell the person to stop) before resorting to pulling out his gun. The YouTube “pranker” has nobody to blame but himself. He should have stopped when asked instead of repeatedly pressing the defendant for a YouTube “prank” video.
(I use “prank” in quotes because I don’t consider this type of thing a real prank. It’s just a guy acting like an idiot and calling it “a prank.” A real prank should leave all involved laughing when it’s revealed, not leave one person fearing for their life.)
No it fucking doesn’t. The whole thing lasted less than 30 seconds and the driver never tried to retreat. He told the prankster no a few times, tried to swat the phone out of his hands, and then shot him. It’s not shocking that the jury had a difficult time coming up with a verdict.
The driver did try to retreat:
Well like the article said, he fucked up by shooting immediately after drawing the weapon, instead of giving Cook (the YouTuber) a chance to see the gun and finally back off. I agree with their decision to keep him in jail because of that one simple fact. The guy should have warned him that he was going to shoot if Cook didn’t back down.
This is wrong and will firmly land you on the wrong side of the law in many places. Pulling a gun is a last resort to defend yourself when de-escalation doesn’t work. You pull the gun when you’ve already determined that you have to fire it. Otherwise you’re just escalating and making the situation more dangerous for yourself and any bystanders. This is also why I don’t carry a gun in the first place even though I might legally be allowed to.
Hey I never said that he should draw the gun before the warning. Warn first, then draw if they still keep advancing.
Brandishing a firearm can be illegal even if you don’t draw it.
He was in a public food court at a mall during lunch
Oh true. Violent acts had never happened in a food court before! /s
Okay, but the only violent act that happened in this case was the shooting of the prankster idiot.
And?
I’ve been robbed at a busy, open public library with a gaggle of elementary kids literally 15ft away. Being in public ain’t the deterrent you think it is.