The Pennsylvania man accused of decapitating his father legally purchased a firearm one day before the grisly slaying, officials said Friday.
Justin Mohn, 32, was charged with first-degree murder and abusing a corpse after he allegedly killed his father Tuesday in their family home before displaying a severed head in a YouTube video.
On Friday, Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn told reporters that Mohn’s father, 68-year-old Michael Mohn, had been shot before he was found dismembered Tuesday evening.
The suspect had bought a gun in Bristol Township on Monday, Schorn added. She said Justin Mohn had no history of diagnosed mental health issues, and had recently surrendered a medical marijuana card, making him eligible to possess a weapon.
“There was nothing legally precluding him from purchasing that gun,” she said. “That also shows you the clear state of mind that he was in having planned what he ultimately carried out.”
The gruesome murder unfolded in Middletown Township’s Levittown section, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Philadelphia.
The macabre footage then went up on YouTube late Tuesday night and remained online for about five hours before the platform removed it.
An autopsy conducted Thursday determined that Michael Mohn suffered a gunshot wound to his head and was “subsequently dismembered” using a knife and then a machete, Schorn said.
“Our thoughts are with this family. This is the unimaginable,” Schorn said Friday. “This is truly unimaginable for them.”
Local law enforcement had had three previous dealings with the suspect before his arrest on Tuesday, according to Middletown Township Police Chief Joseph Bartorilla.
In 2011, officers had to intervene in an argument he was having with someone in his home’s driveway. No arrests were made, Bartorilla said.
In 2019, Mohn called police to say he was threatened by his insurance company and wanted a record of it.
And last year, the suspect’s employer in Philadelphia asked Middletown police for advice on how to terminate Mohn.
The employer “called to express concern about Justin’s behavior at work,” according to Bartorilla, who said police did not offer the suspect’s bosses any employment advice.
Justin Mohn was not home Tuesday evening when Middletown Township police rushed to the residence after the victim’s wife and suspect’s mother found Michael Mohn decapitated in the bathroom, authorities said.
That night, Justin Mohn posted a clip on YouTube, titled “Mohn’s Militia — Call to Arms for American Patriots,” wearing gloves and holding his father’s head in plastic, according to a police complaint. The head was later found in a cooking pot.
Throughout the 14-minute video, Mohn spouted conspiracy theories, called for violence against the federal government and said his 68-year-old father was a traitor.
Michael Mohn had been employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District in its geo-environmental section, according to the Corps.
“We are deeply saddened to learn of the tragic death of our teammate Michael Mohn,” it said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mohn family and we are focused on supporting our grieving employees at this time.”
Michael Prickett, a childhood friend who grew up down the block from Justin Mohn, told NBC News earlier this week that Mohn had been a quiet honor-roll student in high school who later slipped down a rabbit hole of far-right conspiracies. He said he was stunned by the YouTube video that Mohn posted.
“I watched the whole video with my mouth wide open. I came to tears over it,” Prickett said. “The kid I remember as a kid was not the kid I saw in the video.”
