Jury acquits delivery driver of main charge in shooting of YouTube prankster
abcnews.go.com
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
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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.
I get what you're saying, but even just making the threat without pulling a weapon is enough to get a charge in some places. In any case I don't think we should be carrying guns around in our day to day as if it was normal anyway. It's kind of like wearing a rubber suit all the time because you're worried about lightning strikes.
Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Can't fathom you people that don't get this.
Are you living somewhere abnormally dangerous? You are far more likely to use it when it isn't needed. It's the worse bet for most people and if you can't understand that then your fear is blinding you. This is like someone with OCD saying it's better to wash their hands constantly "just in case". Sure maybe you don't wash your hands for the 20th time one day and catch ebola, but more likely you just destroy your hands over time.
Currently no, where I live is not particularly dangerous. That doesn't stop the fact that I've been held up at gunpoint here by a meth head that was quite a bit larger than I am. And I moved here from a large city, well known for it's gang violence. People that are so afraid of guns have never been involved in any kind of dangerous situation, and put far to much faith and trust in the Police and Government. There is nothing wrong with being prepared for the worst. Most here that are saying the guy shouldn't have been afraid because it was a prank are looking at it through hindsight.
Your anecdote is irrelevant. Carrying a gun is not a rational decision for most people because it increases the risk of harm to yourself and others regardless of how you feel about it. I'm not saying this guy should be in jail for defending himself either, but he ultimately was not in mortal danger and wouldn't be facing charges if he didn't have that gun.
I always find it interesting when folks like you try turning "we don't all need guns on us all the time" into a fear of guns. When you seen to be afraid of leaving your house unarmed.
There is something wrong with it. There's always that temptation to use the gun in a situation that doesn't call for it. We've had two "self-defense" shootings in my town in the past few years and in both cases, someone legally carrying a gun used it in a situation where they could have simply walked away, and they probably would have if they didn't have their guns. The shooters in both situations ended up with felony convictions.
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?
So was Dominic Billa.
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.