What on Earth were They Thinking?- A Story of a "Prank" Gone Terribly Wrong

[Jeff Higgins]

What on earth were these kids thinking? Seems a group of young people thought it would be fun to produce their own YouTube version of Candid Camera and film themselves spoofing armed robberies of unsuspecting victims. Seems the plan was to film their reactions, then reveal themselves and tell everyone it was all just a joke, they were on hidden camera, and everyone have a good chuckle. Well, apparently they were a bit too convincing for one intended "victim":

https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/youtube-video-prank-leads-to-deadly-nashville-shooting

YouTube video prank leads to deadly Nashville shooting

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — An apparent prank lead to the death of a man in Nashville.

A self-defense claim was made after a shooting death in the parking lot of Urban Air on Old Hickory Boulevard just before 9:30 p.m. Friday, according to Metro Nashville police. The shooter, 23-year-old David Starnes, Jr., remained on scene.

Starnes admitted to shooting 20-year-old Timothy Wilks. Police were told that Wilks and a friend approached a group of people, including Starnes with butcher knives.

The incident is said to have been a prank robbery for a YouTube video, however, Starnes reportedly did not know and shot Wilks.

[berettafan]

this surely seems like one of those darwin award moments.

feel badly for the guy who (righteously) shot the assailant. being right doesn't mean he won't have to carry a heavy weight on his shoulders the rest of his life.

[Tervuren]

Next up they should try yelling they've got a bomb while at the airpot.

[Nostril Cheese]

When did fart pranks not produce enough laughs?

[GH85Carrera]

When I was a kid some of the neighborhood kids I knew that were a couple of years older than me thought it would be funny to stage a kidnapping. So on the main road on base, Maxwell AFB in Alabama they got one kid to play the victim. The drove up to him, grabbed him off the sidewalk, put a towel around his head, and put him in the trunk and sped off. Someone of course saw it happen, and called the Air Police. The base was sent into instant lock down, and all the APs were all looking for the car. Of course, they found it in short order and approached the car with guns drawn and in a serious manner. The kids were suddenly realizing it was not a funny prank.

The good news for the boys is their dad's were all high ranking officers so it ended with no real charges. The boys all were overwhelmed with the response and realized it was not funny. All the boys involved were seen picking up trash and other tasks and toured the federal prison on base at Maxwell. It is just a minimum security prison for mostly white collar crime, but a prison nonetheless.

To the boys is sounded like a funny prank, and no one was harmed, but they learned a lesson.

[Norm K]

I thought for sure some idiot would get shot during the clown craze of a couple of years ago. If any did, I don't recall reading about it.

_

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Norm K

I thought for some idiot would get shot during the clown craze of a couple of years ago. If any did, I don't recall reading about it.

_

There was a local guy that always won the Halloween costume contest with his bigfoot costume. It must have been a movie prop. It was just amazing quality. The night club that had a contest was next door to a local grocery store and I stood in line next to bigfoot in a well lit store. I told him he should stay in public areas as he would get shot if he went in the woods. He said oh hell yea, he understood.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes

[Gogar]

A little more practice and maybe he coulda got the other guy too.

[Jolly Amaranto]

In high school, some buddies and I were helping a friend paint his car. A nice candy apple red. Converted a garage to a paint booth and did an adequate job of spraying the pain on the car after masking off everywhere that we did not want paint. Of course the masking did not get applied to ourselves so we had plenty of spilled and deliberately applied paint all over our cloths and hands. After finishing up and the paint sort of dry we decided to to just go drive around in one of the guy's VW after dark. Five of us crammed into the bug and took off. On some back road a car was following us so the three of us in the back seat decided to put on a show. Two of us pretended to bludgeon the guy in the middle with some old glass bottles we found rolling around behind the back seat. Kind of a shadow box effect in the headlights of the following car. All of a sudden the car behind us turns into a multicolored light show. Police. We pull over and are ordered out of the car by a lone officer. We are all covered splotches of red, showing up nicely in the police car headlights. The poor officer had his gun drawn and was visibly shaking. As calmly as we could we explained that it was paint and we were just goofing off. After having us move away from the car he shined his flash light in enough to satisfy himself that there were no bodies and holstered his gun. Gave us quite a lecture and let us go.

[Alan A]

I'm still betting it was a mugging went wrong.
But I'm a cynic.

[Jeff Higgins]

One aspect to this story that kind of stands out to me is the one that Gogar eludes to - just how quickly, after the gun cleared the holster, did this guy fire? I think that's important.

You all know I'm a shooter. Yes, more into the vintage stuff and, as I've mentioned in other threads, not as diligent about this whole concealed carry thing as some might assume. Hell, I'm actually almost never armed, unless I'm heading for the wilderness. And no, I don't consider Seattle "the wilderness".

But I have given some thought to "what if?" What if it ever came to that, God forbid, and I had to defend myself? I would think if the other guy were presenting a knife, we would quickly progress in the adult version of rock/paper/scissors. The sight of my gun would make hime very quickly reconsider his career options. And that would be if he were actually a hardened criminal, not just some clowns making a smart ass YouTube video.

So, yeah, gun comes out - knives hit the ground before the guy can even say "drop those knives". Assuming he even wanted to do that. Who says he did? Who says he didn't just really, really want to shoot someone? Who says he wasn't really looking forward to the opportunity?

I hate to say it, but there exists an entire sub-set of tough guy concealed carry advocates just itching for the day they get to shoot someone. Me, I could not imagine a worse day, or anything that would come even close to ruining my life at this level. This is an "avoid at all costs" thought to me, and pretty much all of my close friends who shoot. There is no way on earth any of us would ever want to take a life. We avoid places and situations where it might even be a remote possibility. In a situation with a couple, three, or four punks with knives? The gun comes out as I'm (or my wife and I) are retreating. If they need verbal instructions regarding what i expect from them next, they will be forthcoming.

It will be interesting to see the video. Maybe even quite heartbreaking. Maybe the guy was shooting long before these young men had any kind of a chance to react. He almost had to have been. I'm sure, being no more than pranksters, they both schitt their diapers and dropped the knives as soon as that gun became visible. What a horrible tragedy...

[Bill Douglas]

I read somewhere that in close quarters a knife is a more deadly weapon than a gun. All that fumbling/safety off etc.

Maybe the guy with the gun read the same article and shot while he still had the chance.

[GH85Carrera]

Jeff, yea, shooting someone is something that needs to be only if shooter honestly feels their safey is in immediate danger.

Remember back not long ago a shooter came into a church and shot one guard. A second man drew his gun and made a great shot and killed the bad guy. That shooter is still fighting lawsuits and spending money on lawyers. He killed a stone cold killer about to kill more, yet he still has to fight off lawsuits.

[Dantilla]

Jeff, your thoughts are similar to mine.
I've taken a few self-defense classes (they're fun) and the question always comes up: "When can I shoot"
My answer: "You cant! You cannot shoot another human being. ..unless you HAVE to."

If one ever has to withdraw a gun from its holster, it is because you have failed.
-You have failed to be aware of your surroundings.
-You have failed to avoid dangerous places/situations.

A large percentage of police officers who have had to shoot someone leave law enforcement within a few years.
The psychological toll of taking another life is devastating.

That being said, if a bad guy decides someone is going to die, I will do whatever I can to insure it is him, and not me.

I hope I never have to face that situation.

[oldE]

Has anyone picked up on the story from PA yesterday? Neighbors shoveling snow got into an argument, one fellow shoots his neighbors then goes into his house for a rifle and executes them. When the police arrived they heard one shot from inside house as the shooter saved the taxpayers a bundle. One child left orphaned.
WTF?

Les

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

One aspect to this story that kind of stands out to me is the one that Gogar eludes to - just how quickly, after the gun cleared the holster, did this guy fire? I think that's important.

You all know I'm a shooter. Yes, more into the vintage stuff and, as I've mentioned in other threads, not as diligent about this whole concealed carry thing as some might assume. Hell, I'm actually almost never armed, unless I'm heading for the wilderness. And no, I don't consider Seattle "the wilderness".

But I have given some thought to "what if?" What if it ever came to that, God forbid, and I had to defend myself? I would think if the other guy were presenting a knife, we would quickly progress in the adult version of rock/paper/scissors. The sight of my gun would make hime very quickly reconsider his career options. And that would be if he were actually a hardened criminal, not just some clowns making a smart ass YouTube video.

So, yeah, gun comes out - knives hit the ground before the guy can even say "drop those knives". Assuming he even wanted to do that. Who says he did? Who says he didn't just really, really want to shoot someone? Who says he wasn't really looking forward to the opportunity?

I hate to say it, but there exists an entire sub-set of tough guy concealed carry advocates just itching for the day they get to shoot someone. Me, I could not imagine a worse day, or anything that would come even close to ruining my life at this level. This is an "avoid at all costs" thought to me, and pretty much all of my close friends who shoot. There is no way on earth any of us would ever want to take a life. We avoid places and situations where it might even be a remote possibility. In a situation with a couple, three, or four punks with knives? The gun comes out as I'm (or my wife and I) are retreating. If they need verbal instructions regarding what i expect from them next, they will be forthcoming.

It will be interesting to see the video. Maybe even quite heartbreaking. Maybe the guy was shooting long before these young men had any kind of a chance to react. He almost had to have been. I'm sure, being no more than pranksters, they both schitt their diapers and dropped the knives as soon as that gun became visible. What a horrible tragedy...

I get it, but at the same time, if someone appears threatening with a weapon that could be used to kill you, how much of a chance do you give them to try? This is assuming that if you really do feel threatened, that you are thinking calmly and rationally.

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

I read somewhere that in close quarters a knife is a more deadly weapon than a gun. All that fumbling/safety off etc.

That's what I've seen countless times as well, 7 yards (21 feet) is close enough that a bad guy can be on you before you can get a gun out and use it. I've seen videos that seem to support it.

Originally Posted by Dantilla

Jeff, your thoughts are similar to mine.
I've taken a few self-defense classes (they're fun) and the question always comes up: "When can I shoot"
My answer: "You cant! You cannot shoot another human being. ..unless you HAVE to."

If one ever has to withdraw a gun from its holster, it is because you have failed.
-You have failed to be aware of your surroundings.
-You have failed to avoid dangerous places/situations.

A large percentage of police officers who have had to shoot someone leave law enforcement within a few years.
The psychological toll of taking another life is devastating.

That being said, if a bad guy decides someone is going to die, I will do whatever I can to insure it is him, and not me.

I hope I never have to face that situation.

That's easy to say, but there are times and places that trouble comes looking for someone. You average person assumes that they are safe most of the time in most places. I suspect bad things happen to folks in places that are safe 99.99% of the time, except that one time.

Yes, could/do folks wander into situations that they should have avoided, I have no doubt. Also, are people robbed, hurt, killed in places that they should and normally would be safe, I also have no doubt.

[aap1966]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

It will be interesting to see the video...

This, otherwise it’s just conjecture.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by masraum

That's what I've seen countless times as well, 7 yards (21 feet) is close enough that a bad guy can be on you before you can get a gun out and use it. I've seen videos that seem to support it.

Concealed carry drill in one of my classes here in Texas, even the fat 'effers could go 21 feet in almost no time. Really showed you how fast things can happen.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by oldE

Has anyone picked up on the story from PA yesterday? Neighbors shoveling snow got into an argument, one fellow shoots his neighbors then goes into his house for a rifle and executes them. When the police arrived they heard one shot from inside house as the shooter saved the taxpayers a bundle. One child left orphaned.
WTF?

Les

Wow, people are morons.