Lane Davis, a conspiracy theorist and former intern for Milo Yiannopoulos, allegedly stabbed his own father to death in July after he called Davis a “nazi” and a “racist,” and said that the 33-year-old needed to move out, The Daily Beast is reporting.
“He’s not physically threatening us or anything,” Catherine Davis reportedly told a 911 dispatcher as her son chased her and her husband Charles around the house. “He just gets out of control and he’s ranting about stuff from the internet.”
She continued: “He’s mad about something on the internet about leftist pedophiles and he thinks we’re leftist and he’s calling us pedophiles. And I don’t know what all…he needs an intervention of some kind here.”
Though police were at that point on their way, Davis was reportedly “enraged” by his mother’s phone call.
“OK well, so here’s the deal. If I am going to go to prison for threatening to kill somebody, I mean…” a recording from his Charles’ phone captures Davis saying.
Minutes later, Catherine calls 911, saying that “he stabbed him.” The phone breaks up. She calls back saying, “He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead.”
The Daily Beast proposes a question that extends beyond the scope of this singular murder, though. Were the fringe sites and conversations Davis was participating in—including the video at the top of this article—encouraging him to commit violence?
When reached for comment about Davis and his demeanor, Yiannopoulos had this to say through a spokesperson:
“Mr. Davis was a volunteer for me for a brief period of time prior to my founding MILO Inc. I was unhappy with his work and discontinued the relationship. I then experienced his anger firsthand as he threatened me and later went to BuzzFeed making false and inaccurate accusations.”
Another person Lane worked with — Ethan Ralph, described by the Daily Beast as a prominent GamerGate leader who allowed Davis to publish on his website— says he’s “only responsible for my own actions…I also lack the ability to predict future murders. This isn’t Minority Report.”
Notably, though, the Daily Beast points out that there are other murders committed by people who are involved with alt-right conspiracies. Some examples include Lucy Richards, a woman who thinks the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting never took place, was sentenced to five months in prison after leaving a threatening voicemail for the parent of a 6-year-old victim: “Death is coming to you real soon.” Part of her sentence includes being forbidden to access websites with conspiracy theories on them.
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