Don't bring a knife to a gun fight ..

[rslade]

... that you provoked by pretending to attack people with a knife.

Timothy Wilks and a friend were trying to make a YouTube prank video in the parking lot of Urban Air Trampoline Park in Hermitage, Tennessee. They approached a couple of people and waived butcher knives to pretend to commit a robbery. The would be "victims" knew nothing about the prank and someone pulled out a gun and shot in defense of himself and others.

I suppose the real risk here is doing stupid things for YouTube, TikTok, or Instragram videos.

[CraginS]

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@rslade wrote:

... that you provoked by pretending to attack people with a knife. ...

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From the linked article:

"Witnesses told detectives that Wilks and a friend were participating in a “prank” robbery when they approached a group of people with butcher knives. Starnes said he was unaware of the prank and shot Wilks to defend himself and others.

"No one has been charged in Wilks’ death."

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Actually, the "prank" buddy could be charged with murder or manslaughter in this case. Many US states have laws that anyone involved in a crime in which someone gets killed can be charged with the criminal death, even if they were not the ones who actually caused the killing. In more than one instance, when a legal self defender has killed an attacking criminal, the accomplices in the attacks have been successfully charged and convicted for the death of the miscreants. 

Approaching someone with a deadly weapon (in this case knives) and announcing a robbery is a crime of assault and attempted murder; stopping the attack to announce, "Just kidding! You are on YouTube!" does not ameliorate the fact of the multiple criminal actions. 

Darwin Award Count just went up by +1.

I pray for the mental health and well being of Starnes, the defender in this case.

Craig