A hoax goes wrong: a 20-year-old YouTuber killed during a fake robbery

Sylvie Claire / February 9, 2021

Timothy Wilks was killed this Friday, February 5, 2021 in the United States. The YouTuber, barely 20 years old, faked a robbery for a YouTube prank. A hoax that went wrong as the man in front of him reacted by shooting at him.

Timothy Wilks was killed while he was doing a prank for his YouTube channel. What is a prank? It's a prank that you make by filming yourself and then broadcasting it on the Internet. A phenomenon that is more and more popular on Youtube. For example, David Dorik had made his brother believe that he had become invisible, or the Stokes Twins, Alan and Alex Stokes, indicted after a fake robbery for a prank on YouTube.

But this time, events took a much more tragic turn. YouTuber Timothy Wilks, 20, was killed during a prank in the parking lot of the Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park in Nashville, Tennessee, at approximately 9:25 p.m. this Friday, February 5, 2021, reports the site PureBreak.

What happened?

Timothy Wilks and a friend were armed with butcher knives as reported by NBCnews. They were arresting groups of people under the guise of robbery, threatening them for money. But one of those pranks went wrong: David Starnes Junior, 23, pulled a gun and shot Timothy Wilks at close range.

The shooter is released without pursuit

The Nashville Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that David Starnes Jr. did not understand that this was a hoax and acted in self-defense. Police have yet to investigate all details of the events and also to verify that David Starnes Junior is licensed to carry a firearm. In the meantime, the killer has been released, with no charges pending at this time.