I try to translate some short phrases on the fly. I was watching a video on YouTube and wanted to ask a question:
the guy that was filming the video - did they kill him? was he killed?
un vato que recordan - que paso? lo mataron? lo mataban?
What is the correct way to say this? "mataban" or "mataron"?
When referring to a movie or a book, we use the "pretérito imperfecto" (e.g. mataban) to ask a question about a future event in the development of the plot:
-- No recuerdo qué le pasaba al personaje. ¿Lo mataban? (I don't remember what happened to the character. Was he killed?)
This use can be justified as a reported form of the historical present:
-- Primero lo persiguen, después lo matan. (First they chase him, then they kill him.) => Recuerdo que primero lo perseguían, y después lo mataban. (I remember that first they chased him, and then they killed him.)
Instead, when asking a question about a scene that just took place, the "pretérito perfecto simple" (e.g. mataron) is used:
-- ¿Y ahora qué pasó? ¿Lo mataron? (And now what happened? Was he killed?)
"Lo mataban" is a past tense of the verb kill that implies the action was being carried on at the time of the context of the sentence. ¨"By the time I could reach him, he was being killed slowly" Would be "Para cuando pude llegar a él, lo mataban poco a poco".
On the other hand "lo mataron" means the action had finished during the context of the sentence. "He was killed before I could help him" would be "Lo mataron antes de que le pudiera ayudar".
The first example sounds a bit awkward, I was trying to get a similar enough context on both examples, I hope I could help.
So in the context of your YouTube comment it would be more appropiate to say: "El hombre (or "tío" if you want to be more informal, it means "guy") que estaba grabando el vídeo, qué pasó con él? lo mataron"? Because if you say "lo mataban" it would imply you are asking if he was actively being killed in a particular scene of the video.
PS; I am not a linguist of any kind, just a native Spanish speaker so this is why my explanation has no technicalities. I might be wrong, but this is how I understand it from my point of view of being a Spaniard.
