QAnon Follower Killed Wife and Shot Daughter Before Cops Shot Him Dead

A 53-year-old Michigan man who was consumed by “Stop the steal” and QAnon conspiracies allegedly shot his wife, daughter, and their dog at their suburban Detroit home early Sunday morning, killing his wife and the dog.

He was shot dead by police officers moments later when he exited his home and began firing at the officers. While police said Sunday they don’t know what led to Igor Lanis shooting his wife, Tina, 56, and one of their daughters, Rachel, 25, another daughter who was not in the house at the time has claimed that QAnon is to blame.

“My Qdad snapped and killed my family this morning,” Rebecca Lanis, 21, wrote in a thread on the QAnon Casualties subreddit on Sunday, hours before the Detroit police and media first reported the details of the shooting.

She wrote that “growing up, my parents were extremely loving and happy people. I always had a special bond with both my parents.” But, she said, things began to change with her father a couple of years ago, after former President Donald Trump contested the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“In 2020 after Trump lost, my dad started going down the Q rabbit hole,” she wrote in the forum, which provides support to the families of those who’ve been affected by QAnon believers. “He kept reading conspiracy theories about the stolen election, Trump, vaccines, etc. It kept getting worse and he verbally snapped at us a few times. Nothing physical though. He never got physical with anybody.”

But around 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, Rebecca Lanis said, her father “had an argument with my mother and he decided to take our guns and shoot her, my dog, and my sister. My mother succumbed to her wounds and my sister is in the hospital right now.”

In a statement, the sheriff's office in Oakland County, Michigan, said they received a 911 call from Rachel Lanis, “who stated that she had just been shot by her father. The caller was unable to provide further information such as location of the incident.

As officers from Walled Lake Police Department were speaking to neighbors in the area, they heard shotgun blasts from the Lanis home and approached the building.

“The suspect, later identified as Igor Lanis, a 53-year-old male, exited out of the front door of the address, presented a Remington 870 pump-action shotgun, and fired on officers,” said the statement from the sheriff’s office. “The Walled Lake Police officer as well as an Oakland County Sheriff Deputy returned fire, striking the suspect fatally wounding him.”

Officers approached the building and found Rachel Lanis attempting to crawl out the front door. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters at a press conference Sunday that she had suffered what he described as “super traumatic injuries” to her back and legs. She was rushed to a local hospital. and after emergency surgery, her status was updated from critical to stable. In a comment on Reddit, Rebecca Lanis said, “there's a possibility she won't be able to move her legs again.”

Inside the house, officers found Tina Lanis’ body. She was “shot multiple times in the back, and it appears that she was also attempting to flee out of the front door. Also, the family dog who was shot multiple times and killed.”

Rebecca Lanis is currently staying with her grandparents but wrote that she was “just in shock that this really happened. It hasn't even hit me yet.”

“I guess it was pure dumb luck because I was sleeping over at a friend's that night. I could've also died,” Rebecca Lanis added in the forum. “I'm so fucking mad at everything.”

She added that her family was religious but that “Q turned my dad away from our religion. I believe that God has a plan for me and I will not be the next casualty to this actually demonic Q cult.”

Like many people whose family members have succumbed to QAnon conspiracies, Lanis wrote that her father’s behavior and personality had completely changed.

“He would spend all day and night reading stuff on his phone and laptop and would get really pissy over the smallest things. His carefree and fun persona was gone. He started talking about 5G and EMFs being bad, and modern medicine being a sham,” she said. “It's like he got possessed by a demon.”

This incident is the latest example of QAnon conspiracies triggering violence. Last year, Matthew Coleman, a surf school instructor from Santa Barbara, took his two children to Mexico and allegedly murdered them with spearfishing guns. He also allegedly told police officers that QAnon conspiracies had led him to believe his children were going to grow up to be monsters.

Rebecca Lanis wrote on Sunday that she posted about the incident on the Reddit thread because she wanted to raise awareness about the threat posed by QAnon and make more people aware of the dangers this conspiracy movement poses.

“Fuck you, Qanon,” she wrote. “I hope the FBI tightens its grip on you and that your lackies rot in prison (and hell) for poisoning so many people.”