A 53-year-old man from Michigan, Igor Lanis, with purported beliefs in the QAnon conspiracy theory, was killed in a police shootout on Sunday after he allegedly shot his wife and severely injured their daughter at their home in Walled Lake, a small community near Detroit.
According to reports, Lanis has no history of violence or protective orders against him. However, his youngest daughter, Rebecca Lanis, 21, who was not present at home at the time of the attack, said that Lanis had become increasingly interested in the QAnon conspiracy theory in recent years.
After receiving a 911 call from Lanis’ daughter Rachel, 25, just after 4 a.m., who said she had been shot by her father, officers arrived at the scene and approached the home.
Lanis came out of the front door armed with a shotgun and began to fire at the officers, who returned fire, killing him. Rachel was found outside the home and was taken to a local hospital, where she is in stable condition.
Lanis’ wife, Tina, 56, was found dead inside the home with multiple gunshot wounds. The family dog was also found dead with multiple gunshot wounds.
Dangerous belief
QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that originated in the United States in 2017. It is based on the belief that there is a secret group of high-ranking officials, celebrities, and other influential figures who are involved in a global conspiracy against the public.
According to QAnon supporters, this conspiracy involves a deep state that is working against the current administration, as well as the alleged sexual abuse and human trafficking of children by high-ranking officials and celebrities.
QAnon supporters also believe that President Donald Trump was working to expose and take down this alleged deep state and that he would eventually be hailed as a hero for doing so.
QAnon has been linked to various forms of misinformation, including false claims about the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been connected to instances of violence and criminal activity.
It has been designated as a potential domestic terrorism threat by the FBI, and social media platforms have taken steps to remove QAnon-related content and accounts.
“I want the media to call out Q because this is all their fault,” wrote surviving daughter Rebecca Lanis in a Reddit forum specified for QAnon victims. She said her father’s obsession with the QAnon conspiracy theory caused a drastic change in his behavior.
She described him as going from a loving and carefree person to becoming irritable and wary of perceived dangers from modern medicine and 5G technology. She also said it was as if he had been “possessed by a demon.”
Other QAnon victims
This was not the first time a QAnon fanatic ended up attacking their closest ones. Matthew Taylor Coleman, an individual obsessed with the QAnon conspiracy theory, murdered his two children Kaleo, 2, and Roxy, ten months, in Santa Barbara, California, back in August 2021.
He believed that his wife, Abby Coleman, had infected their children with serpent DNA and therefore had to kill them. Coleman used a spearfishing gun to commit the murders and then fled to Mexico with the kids. He murdered both children there.
He was arrested when he attempted to return to the United States. Coleman has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of murdering U.S. nationals on foreign soil and is currently being held without bond at an undisclosed federal prison in California while undergoing psychological testing to determine his state of mind.
Abby Coleman has been living with family members in Texas since the incident. A family friend has stated that Coleman’s life “ended that day” and that she is “trying to heal” with conflicting feelings towards her husband, sometimes feeling pity for him and other times wanting to never see him again.