A far-right conspiracy theorist is accused of murdering his own father after a confrontation at their home drove him into a manic state, the Daily Beast reports.
Lane Davis, a 33-year-old college dropout in Washington, was unemployed and living with his parents. He spent much of his time on the internet, surfing a Donald Trump sub-Reddit, preaching Second Amendment rights and recording YouTube videos with conspiracy theories about 9/11 and vaccines as “Seattle4Truth.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
On July 14, Davis began his day online, ranting about diversity on Twitter, alleging that CNN was “literally ISIS” and blogging about Sharia law for The Ralph Retort, a far-right blog for which he wrote as an unpaid political editor.
Up Next: Vegas Shooter’s Brother Bruce Paddock Arrested for Heinous Sex Crime
As Davis holed up in his online world, he began “screaming” on a political tirade and his parents, Catherine and Chuck, began recording audio of his meltdown as they had become frequent and troublesome.
They tried to get their son to leave the house when he wouldn’t stop shouting, but he continued and began chasing them around the house. Davis spit in his father’s face while yelling that he “wasn’t threatening to kill them, but ‘pedophiles who were taking over the country.’ “
Catherine called 911 for help, and the dispatcher told her police would be on the way.
“He’s not physically threatening us or anything,” Catherine told the dispatcher. “He just gets out of control and he’s ranting about stuff from the internet.” She added that he was calling them leftist pedophiles as he chased them.
The 911 call provoked Davis to grab a chef’s knife and tell his parents, “Ok well, so here’s the deal. If I am going to go to prison for threatening to kill somebody, I mean…” His mother tried to calm him down, assuring him he wouldn’t go to prison, but he didn’t listen.
Minutes later, Catherine re-dialed 911, screaming “He stabbed him,” before the connection cut out.
Chuck died on the family’s back deck from stab wounds to his chest and back, and Davis surrendered to police without resistance.
More: FBI Releases New Documents on Sandy Hook Shooting
He told police he had been arguing with his father over “whether toddlers could consent to sex or not,” but when his dad called him a racist and a Nazi, he snapped.
Davis is being held on a $1 million bail and is awaiting trial for first-degree murder which is set to begin in January.
As Davis sits behind bars, unable to contribute to his online outlets, The Ralph Retort is working to scrub the accused from its site and cut ties with the daily blogger.
“As for Seattle4Truth, we’ll be working to erase him from this website in the coming days. I don’t care how big his contribution was,” Ralph Retort’s creator Ethan Ralph and his wife Nora wrote. “A guy that would murder his own father in cold blood doesn’t deserve to be read. No matter how accurate he was in the past, he ended his usefulness to this world when he ended his dad’s life.”
Ralph denies any assumption that the alt-right may have indoctrinated Davis or that he was given a “safe haven” to explore violent thoughts.
Photo credit: YouTube / Seattle4Truth
