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Youtuber fake robs. Person real shoots.

crash_davis

By crash_davis
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crash_davis

crash_davis 23113

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I wonder how many likes the video got?

https://popculture.com/trending/news/youtuber-shot-killed-while-attempting-prank-robbery/

A 20-year-old man was shot and killed in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday night in what police say was a YouTube video shoot gone wrong. According to a report by local NBC News affiliate WSMV, Timothy Wilks was shot by 23-year-old David Starnes Jr., who is claiming self-defense. Wilks and some friends were apparently trying to pull a prank on strangers in the hopes of making a viral YouTube video.

 

The shooting reportedly took place in the parking lot of Urban Air, a trampoline and adventure park in a strip mall in Nashville's Hermitage neighborhood. There, police say that Wilks and a friend approached a group of people, both of them wielding butcher knives. Starnes was among those people and, not realizing that Wilks was filming a prank, shot him. Starnes told detectives he was protecting himself and others from a perceived threat.

So far, Metro Police say no charges have been filed against Starnes, but an investigation is still underway. Wilks' video was apparently supposed to be a fake robbery, so it is not clear if he and his friend could have faced criminal charges as well.

As the news spread on social media, locals were horrified by the bloodshed and its senselessness. Many wished that young people like Wilkes had not been sold on the dream of virality by any means necessary. On the Facebook page Scoop: Nashville, one commenter wrote: "This is sad but why do people pull these reckless pranks? It was inevitable that at some point someone would defend their self. Tragic."

"That's so sad the man died but that is about the dumbest prank you can pull on someone. These are scary times as it is. You shouldn't go around pretending to rob people," another person added. A third wrote: "Bro, I don't know what to say. I mean, pranks are just supposed to draw somebody's authentic reaction to a presumed real situation. And that's what they got. It's really unfortunate and maybe we can lay off of filming pranks because I'm not sure what they were trying to get but we gotta do better."

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AUS-97HORN

AUS-97HORN 11809

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if story as presented is true, I'm really sorry for the man who had to kill the prankster for legitimately fearing for his life.

He has to live with that for the rest of his life, knowing that what he did was the right thing at the time, but just a stupid kid being an idiot after the fact.

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SurlyGator

SurlyGator 865

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42 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Just shaking my head. Not a lot you can say about that kind of stoopid.  That poor guy has to go thru life with the death of another on his conscience.  

Not sure how you come out of that without some emotional scarring, and baggage.

Not just some other person, they were friends.  Saw this on local news over the weekend and wondered how long it would take to show up here.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54253

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42 minutes ago, SurlyGator said:

Not just some other person, they were friends.  Saw this on local news over the weekend and wondered how long it would take to show up here.

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Wilks and some friends were apparently trying to pull a prank on strangers in the hopes of making a viral YouTube video.

 

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54253

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Two 23-year old twins face criminal charges for a prank in which authorities say they staged a fake bank robbery in Irvine that resulted in a police response, including officers holding an unsuspecting Uber driver at gunpoint.

Alan and Alex Stokes, 23, of Irvine each were charged with a felony count of false imprisonment and a misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an emergency, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors allege that around 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2019, the brothers – dressed in black, wearing ski masks and carrying duffel bags full of cash – pretended like they had just robbed a bank, while their videographer filmed them.

According to the DA’s office, the brothers ordered an Uber, but the driver – who was unaware of the alleged prank – refused to drive them anywhere. A bystander, believing the two men had robbed a bank and were trying to carjack the driver, called 911.

Irvine officers ordered the Uber driver out of the car at gunpoint, then released him after determining he hadn’t committed a crime. The officers let the Stokes brothers go with a warning, according to the DA’s office.

Prosecutors allege that four hours later the brothers carried out a similar prank on the UC Irvine campus, and officers once again responded to reports of a bank being robbed. The men left before officers arrived.

The “Stokes Twins” YouTube page has more than 4.8 million followers, and includes videos that routinely drew millions of views. Their TikTok account has 25.4 million followers. A video entitled “Bank Robbery Prank! (goes wrong),” posted on Oct. 20, 2019 and appearing to depict the alleged actions cited by the DA’s office was still available on YouTube on Wednesday afternoon, but was set to private by Thursday morning.

The video shows the brothers running around the college campus, asking bystanders for help finding, or robbing a bank. It depicts an Uber driver kicking them out of his car. It also shows one of the brothers talking to a group about what happened to the driver.

“There were like 10 cop cars that pulled out like guns on him,” one of the brothers says in the video. “Poor guy.”


The video also shows one of the twins talking to officers, telling them he “just didn’t expect this happening.”

“Think about what is going on nowadays,” one of the officers tells one of the twins in the video. “You’ve got to be smarter. You know better … What do you think people are going to do? You are lucky you didn’t get any guns drawn on you.”

The brothers could not be reached Wednesday for comment. A date for their arraignment has not been set.

“These were not pranks,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a written statement. “These are crimes that could have resulted in someone getting seriously injured or even killed. Law enforcement officers are sworn to protect the public and when someone calls 911 to report an active bank robbery they are going to respond to protect lives. Instead, what they found was some kind of twisted attempt to gain more popularity on the internet by unnecessarily putting members of the public and police officers in danger.”

If convicted, the brothers face up to four years in prison, according to the DA’s office.

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Attorneys for TikTok stars Alan and Alex Stokes are pushing back against allegations that the twins broke the law while filming a YouTube prank video about a fake Irvine bank robbery that drew a police response.

The defense attorneys now contend that the brothers – who have pleaded not guilty to charges of felony false imprisonment and misdemeanor falsely reporting an emergency – have been wrongfully accused, and say the public nature of the allegations has complicated their ability to make a living.

“This is an incident that has really had an impact on them, and it’s our feeling that there were assumptions made or conclusions that were jumped to,” said Matthew Wallin, one of the attorneys representing the brothers. “People’s lives can be ruined by the discretion given to the prosecutor’s office to levy charges.”

The defense attorneys acknowledge that the brothers were filming a video for their YouTube channel on the afternoon of Oct. 15, 2019 when bystanders mistakenly believed a crime occurred and called 911.

Prosecutors allege that the brothers – dressed in back, wearing ski masks and carrying duffel bags full of cash – pretended like they had just robbed a bank, while their videographer filmed them.

According to prosecutors, the brothers ordered an Uber, but the driver refused to drive them anywhere. When Irvine police arrived, they ordered the Uber driver out of the car at gunpoint, before releasing him after learning he hadn’t committed a crime.

The officers let the Stokes brothers go with a warning, but prosecutors allege that four hours later they carried out a similar prank at the UC Irvine campus. The brothers were not arrested.

In announcing the charges filed against the brothers last month, District Attorney Todd Spitzer said the incidents “were not pranks,” but instead “crimes that could have resulted in someone getting seriously injured or even killed.”

The “Stokes Twins” YouTube page has nearly 5 million followers, while their TikTok account has more than 25 million followers. A video entitled “Bank Robbery Prank! (goes wrong)” that appears to show the incidents cited by the DA’s office was previously posted on their YouTube page, but does not appear to be available any longer.


The video showed the brothers running around the college campus asking bystanders for help finding, or robbing a bank, and depicted an Uber driver kicking them out of his car. It also showed an officer telling one of the twins, “You’ve got to be smarter. You know better.”

Wallin acknowledged that some of the things shown on the video can’t be disputed, though he denied that they amounted to crimes. The defense attorney also raised the possibility that the video had been choreographed and planned, though he declined to say whether any of the apparent bystanders depicted in the video were in on the prank.

“It isn’t always clear when you watch what steps were taken,” Wallin said. “These things are generally planned, they are not done on a whim.”

The defense attorneys did not make the brothers themselves available for comment. The twins currently are out of custody on their own recognizance, according to court records.

 

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TexasEd

TexasEd 8067

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Brought a knife to a gun fight.

Who plans fake robberies with real knives against strangers?  Is the next step a fake break in and sexual assault for likes? Carjacking for shares and retweets?

Sounds like a great plausible deniability scam. "Your honor, we only set the homeless camp on fire for a youtube channel.  It wasn't a real crime."  It's like they want the Fuck Around without the Find Out.

I feel bad for the real victim, the guy who defended his life with lethal force. 

 

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hullabelew

hullabelew 3724

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Those dumbasses as ABC had a show called "What Would You Do".  Their first episode never aired and I can't believe they still went through with putting the show on the air.  A guy who worked with Baboso and I (carries a gun as a part of his job) was sitting at a corner cafe.  He witnesses what he things in a mugging where a dude runs up behind a chick and steals her purse.  He is sitting on the patio, witnesses it, hops the fence, face plants the 'robber' and holds him at gun point.  

Tore is ACL in doing so.  I don't know what they must have paid him to keep from this getting on the news.   Fuck those folks who think staging this shit is a good idea.  

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Serak The Preparer

Serak The Preparer 3431

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6 hours ago, AUS-97HORN said:

if story as presented is true, I'm really sorry for the man who had to kill the prankster for legitimately fearing for his life.

He has to live with that for the rest of his life, knowing that what he did was the right thing at the time, but just a stupid kid being an idiot after the fact.

This may seem like pedantic quibble, but he didn't "have" to kill the prankster. He made the choice. I am not at all trying to imply that he made the wrong choice, or that I would have chosen differently, and completely agree that it sucks for the shooter that he'll have to live with this. But just like I tell my kids all the f'ing time, nobody HAS to do anything - make a choice and accept the consequences.

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89727

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Jackass on MTV had a lot of classic pranks that could still be done today - the casket falling out of the hearse, them getting in old man makeup and fucking around, etc.

And some of those took a lot of creativity/preparation.  And took a helluva toll on the bodies of the actors.

These idiots are just after a few clicks/bucks. 

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Errestaurants

Errestaurants 2570

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On 2/8/2021 at 3:37 PM, Continental Op said:

While we're exploring the Pranks For Likes Gone Bad genre, my favorite is "Man pretends to hit on someone's girlfriend and catches Wario's hands" 

 

Love how that kid put his drink down and got right to work. Didn’t waste anytime, no shit talking. He definitely fucks.

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mulletpelini

mulletpelini 5211

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On 2/8/2021 at 3:20 PM, Serak The Preparer said:

This may seem like pedantic quibble, but he didn't "have" to kill the prankster. He made the choice. I am not at all trying to imply that he made the wrong choice, or that I would have chosen differently, and completely agree that it sucks for the shooter that he'll have to live with this. But just like I tell my kids all the f'ing time, nobody HAS to do anything - make a choice and accept the consequences.

Man sticks a knife in your face, you got two choices.  You can die or you can kill the motherfucker.

Seriously, you're with your wife and kids and this dumbass approaches you with a knife?  He's dead, Jim.

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40851

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On 2/8/2021 at 3:20 PM, Serak The Preparer said:

This may seem like pedantic quibble, but he didn't "have" to kill the prankster. He made the choice. I am not at all trying to imply that he made the wrong choice, or that I would have chosen differently, and completely agree that it sucks for the shooter that he'll have to live with this. But just like I tell my kids all the f'ing time, nobody HAS to do anything - make a choice and accept the consequences.

If some strangers are coming at me with butcher knives, I damn well am going to start shooting center mass before they get close enough to do any damage and the threat is stopped.

That is how Self Defense 101 is taught in all carry license classes. Death is just a byproduct of the defensive action and responsibility is entirely on the aggressor.

Nothing wrong with that anywhere common sense is in force. I’d rather deal with any legal consequences later than be wrong.

Edited by Armybrat
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Armybrat

Armybrat 40851

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12 hours ago, mulletpelini said:

Man sticks a knife in your face, you got two choices.  You can die or you can kill the motherfucker.

Seriously, you're with your wife and kids and this dumbass approaches you with a knife?  He's dead, Jim.

Serak ain’t living up to his username.

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Serak The Preparer

Serak The Preparer 3431

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12 hours ago, mulletpelini said:

Man sticks a knife in your face, you got two choices.  You can die or you can kill the motherfucker.

Seriously, you're with your wife and kids and this dumbass approaches you with a knife?  He's dead, Jim.

 

3 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Serak ain’t living up to his username.

Given that I literally said I was not even trying to hint that he made the wrong choice, I struggle to understand how both of you are misrepresenting my comments so much. I am not say he did the wrong thing. Not saying the prankster didn't initiate the events that led to his death. I haven't seen any video so I don't know exactly how things went down, but it certainly looks about as textbook self defense as you can get.

I just think people should (in general) recognize that they make decisions, not "have" to do things. Is it pedantic? Sure as shit, yes, but it is akin to police reports saying "the weapon discharged". No motherfucker, you fired it. Now it may or may not have been a good decision, but it wasn't something from on high that happened.

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40851

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Your point seems to be convoluted and not really clear.

I believe that in this case and any other similar ones,  it would be a good, prudent decision. The bad decision was obviously made by the aggressor and gave the shooter no choice but self defense. It was really a natural choice ... or would be for a normal person.
Of course the shooter may or may not have regrets afterward. In my nephew’s case who was involved in a self defense shooting, it was a no-brainer. He says he absolutely slept well that night and has ever since.

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BehoId, The Underminer!

BehoId, The Underminer! 11669

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23 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

If some strangers are coming at me with butcher knives, I damn well am going to start shooting center mass before they get close enough to do any damage and the threat is stopped.

That was a Shakespeare-In-The-Park production of "Julius Caesar", you moron! You killed 5 actors! Good ones.

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