Does the reason Brian McGann allegedly killed his dad mean 2024 will be a bad year for fathers?

This article contains graphic descriptions of murder. Please read with caution.

In Feb. 2024, Brian McGann Jr. of southern Florida was accused of brutally beating his father to death because his dad got a vaccine, making McGann Jr.’s dad the second father killed early this year over similar conspiracy theories.

A McGann family friend who lived miles away in northern Florida reported that she spoke with the younger McGann for hours on the same day that McGann Jr. is accused of killing his father, Brian McGann Sr. In their phone conversation, she said McGann Jr. told her he was being followed by law enforcement, and that she should leave where she lived, “because he was going to be dead.”

She also spoke to the younger McGann again later that evening, and he told her he had just left a bar and was arriving at his father’s house. According to WPTV.com, later in that same conversation, she heard McGann’s father call out for help while she was still on the phone.

Many reports add she also heard the older McGann shout, “Stop, you are killing me.” Meanwhile, she said McGann Jr. told her his dad was “under his foot.”

How did McGann Sr. die?

Alarmed by what she heard in the phone conversation, the McGann family friend called 911. She told the police the younger McGann, who was 44, attacked his father because he had recently received a vaccine, but reports are unclear which one. Authorities later determined that McGann Sr., who was declared dead at the scene, died from blunt force trauma.

The family friend said she believed McGann Jr. was intoxicated when the attack happened, and had also been recently using cocaine. She also described McGann Jr. as a “delusional conspiracy theorist,” according to the police complaint.

When the police arrived at the older McGann residence, McGann Jr. tried to run but was later apprehended covered in blood, with cuts and lacerations on his body. Blood was also all over the inside of McGann Sr.’s home.

Once in custody, the younger McGann was booked on first-degree murder charges and held at Palm Beach County Jail. As of this report, McGann Jr. was held without bond and was expected to appear in court in March 2024, WPBF.com reported.

The Michael Mohn case

Only a few weeks before Mcgann Sr. died, Justin Mohn allegedly shot and then decapitated his father, Michael J. Mohn, in Pennsylvania, and then posted a YouTube video, which was later taken down, showing Mohn’s severed head. In the video, Justin called his father a traitor. While he didn’t mention vaccines, Mohn called for an American uprising, citing many right-wing talking points that often accompany anti-vaccine misinformation. Mohn was later arrested and charged with his father’s murder.