A 21-year-old man said he was recording a practical joke for his YouTube channel in a mall in Dulles, Virginia when a prankee got mad and shot him in the abdomen.
Tanner Cook, a prankster on the YouTube page Classified Goons, was in intensive care on Sunday after a bullet pierced his stomach and liver, according to the CBS News affiliate station WUSA.
He remains in a hospital following surgery. Cook's father, Jeramy Cook told Insider his son's gallbladder was removed during surgery and that he'd been on heavy medication to deal with the pain. The elder Cook said he's hopeful that his son will recover.
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.
Previous videos show him going behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant, trailing strangers in stores, and pretending to vomit on Uber drivers.
In earlier videos his victims became aggressive and even called the police.
But on Sunday Cook got his most shocking response yet. He and his friend were recording a prank video near the Cheesecake Factory in Dulles Town Center mall's food court when the suspect, Alan Colie, allegedly pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and shot him.
Cook's family told WUSA the footage is now part of the evidence against Colie, 31, who was charged with aggravated malicious wounding, shooting in the commission of a felony, and discharging firearms within an occupied building.
The elder Cook said he was concerned at Colie's response to being "offended."
"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.
"Even though this guy tried killing my son, I forgive him. I'm not offended because I serve a God — the God of the Bible, Jesus, and he instructs me how to live, and that's to not live in offense because these are the kind of things that can happen if you're consumed with anger and offense," he said.
Colie appeared in court on Monday and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for May. He's being held without bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center, the sheriff's office said.
Cook was not publicly identified by name by police, but court documents identify him as the victim of the shooting.
Despite his injuries, Cook told WUSA that he intends to continue making prank videos.
