Jury acquits delivery driver of main charge in shooting of YouTube prankster
CTV
A jury on Thursday found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who followed him around a mall food court earlier this year.
A jury on Thursday found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who followed him around a mall food court earlier this year.
Alan Colie, 31, was acquitted of aggravated malicious wounding in the shooting of Tanner Cook, 21, who runs the "Classified Goons" YouTube channel.
The jury was split though on two lesser firearms counts, and decided to convict him on one and acquit him on the other.
The April 2 shooting at the food court in Dulles Town Center, about 45 minutes west of the nation's capital, set off panic as shoppers fled what they feared to be a mass shooting.
Colie pleaded not guilty and said he was acting in self defense.
The verdict came Thursday after about five hours of deliberation. Three hours in, the jury sent out a note saying it was "divided in terms of whether the defendant acted in self defense."
Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Snow called the jury back into the courtroom around 3:30 p.m. and urged them to continue deliberations, a standard admonition given to juries that indicate they are deadlocked.
A federal gun case against U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter opened Monday with jury selection, following the collapse of a plea deal that would have avoided the spectacle of a trial so close the 2024 election. First lady Jill Biden was seated in the front row of the courtroom, in a show of support for her son.
United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told a gathering of top security officials Saturday that war with China was neither imminent nor unavoidable, despite rapidly escalating tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, stressing the importance of renewed dialogue between him and his Chinese counterpart in avoiding "miscalculations and misunderstandings."