Justin Mohn has been charged with the murder of his own father after he allegedly shot and beheaded him. Authorities revealed more details of the gruesome murder, including that Mohn bought a gun the day before. NBC10’s Frances Wang reports.
What to Know
- A Pennsylvania prosecutor says the man accused of shooting and decapitating his father in their home northeast of Philadelphia and posting a video of the severed head purchased a gun the previous day.
- Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said Friday that 32-year-old Justin D. Mohn was “acting with clear mind” when he allegedly killed his father, Michael F. Mohn, at their home in Levittown on Tuesday.
- Justin Mohn faces charges of first-degree murder, abusing a corpse and possession of instruments of crime.
Editor's note: The details of this story are graphic and could be disturbing to viewers.
The man accused of shooting and decapitating his father in their Bucks County home and posting a video of the severed head on YouTube purchased a gun the previous day, the county prosecutor said Friday.
At a news conference in Doylestown, Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said Justin Mohn, 32, was “acting with clear mind” when he allegedly killed his father and then drove about two hours to a Pennsylvania National Guard training center, where he was arrested. She said an autopsy showed that his father had been shot in the head before he was decapitated with a knife and machete.
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Justin Mohn didn't have a history of being committed for mental illness and purchased the 9mm handgun legally, Schorn said, surrendering a medical marijuana card before the purchase so he could be eligible to buy the weapon.
“It was evident to us that he was of clear mind in his purpose and what he was doing, aside from what his beliefs are,” Schorn said.
Officials revealed more details on the murder as well as Mohn's background during Friday's presser.
The murder of Michael Mohn
On Tuesday, around 7 p.m., police were called to the Mohn home on Upper Orchard Drive in Levittown, Middletown Township, for a report of a possible death.
When police arrived, they found the decapitated body of a man – later identified as Michael Mohn – inside the bathroom of the home. A large amount of blood surrounded the victim and both a machete and a large kitchen knife were found near the bathtub, according to a criminal complaint obtained by NBC10.
Investigators also said they found Mohn’s severed head inside a plastic bag, which was inside of a cooking pot in the bedroom next to the bathroom. They later found rubber gloves with blood on them in another bedroom as well as on a desk.
The elder Mohn’s wife told investigators she had last seen her husband and their son, Justin Mohn, at home earlier that day around 2 p.m. When she returned home later in the day, she noticed her front door was unlocked and that her husband’s 2009 Toyota Corolla, as well as her son were missing, according to the criminal complaint. She called police shortly after.
An autopsy later revealed Michael Mohn had been shot to death and then decapitated.
He was a federal employee, an engineer with the geoenvironmental section of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District.
“We are deeply saddened to learn of the tragic death of our teammate Michael Mohn. ... Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mohn family and we are focused on supporting our grieving employees at this time,” the district said in a statement. It referred any further questions to law enforcement.
The YouTube video
Police later learned of a YouTube video that appeared to show Justin Mohn picking up his father’s severed head from a cooking pot and holding it up. The 14-minute, 35-second video titled “Mohn’s Militia – Call to Arms for American Patriots” showed Justin Mohn wearing the same type of rubber gloves that were found at the crime scene, investigators said.
Police said it appeared he was reading from a script as he encouraged violence against government officials and called his father a traitor to his country.
Justin Mohn also claimed he was the commander of a national network of militia and ordered members of his "militia" across the country to capture, torture and murder federal employees, investigators said.
Schorn also said Mohn revealed the home address of a federal judge and placed a bounty on several high-ranking federal officials.
He also attacked Democratic President Joe Biden, the Black Lives Matter movement, the LGBTQ community as well as antifa activists, according to NBC News.
In a statement, YouTube said the video, which was uploaded and not livestreamed, was removed for violating its graphic violence policy and Justin Mohn’s channel was shut down. Police said the video was online for about five hours.
"That was incredibly concerning. I mean obviously from an evidentiary value, that video is very important and we need to have possession of that. But it’s quite horrifying how many views we understand it had before it was taken down," Schorn said. "Obviously, we were able to capture and secure that video because it’s pretty self-explanatory as to who’s responsible although these are allegations at this point.”
The video was also shared onto other platforms.
By Wednesday morning, the video had already spread to X, where a graphic clip of Mohn holding his father’s head remained on the platform for at least seven hours and received 20,000 views. The company, formerly known as Twitter, did not respond to a request for comment.
The arrest of Justin Mohn
Justin Mohn drove his father’s car to Fort Indiantown Gap, where he was taken into custody, Capt. Pete Feeney of the Middletown Township Police Department said. Officials at the facility were told late Tuesday that Mohn’s cellphone had pinged nearby, according to Angela Watson, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
During Friday's press conference, officials said Mohn drove past barricades, exited the car and climbed a barbed wire fence. Responding police officers and state troopers found Mohn trespassing on the property and he was taken into custody without incident. Investigators said he had a loaded handgun in his possession that was missing one round.
"He stated he went into Fort Indiantown Gap in an effort to mobilize the Pennsylvania National Guard to raise arms against the federal government," Schorn said. "He also indicated that he wanted to speak to Governor Shapiro to join forces."
Watson said Mohn has never been a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard.
Mohn, who also was arrested on a weapons possession charge, was arraigned Wednesday and held without bail with a hearing scheduled for Feb. 8.
A woman answering the phone at the Bucks County Office of the Public Defender said Friday that they were representing him and said the office declined further comment.
What we know about Justin Mohn
Officials said Mohn graduated from Neshaminy High School and Penn State University.
While living in Colorado in 2017, Mohn allegedly harassed employees at the Colorado Springs credit union where he once worked, threatening to sue the business for $10 million unless it agreed to a $2 million settlement. He also allegedly threatened to publish false statements about them or come to the credit union and make false statements to provoke police to attack the employees and then film it.
Three employees sought protection orders against Mohn, but dropped the case under a settlement in which he promised not to contact them and they paid him $10,000. As part of the case, the workers had submitted the lines from a song or poem written by Mohn that they felt were threatening, entitled “Men Don’t Get No Warning Shot.”
In one email submitted as evidence, Mohn accused his co-workers of tampering with evidence in a disciplinary matter against him in 2016 and said the state’s civil rights division was investigating.
Mohn embraced violent anti-government rhetoric in writings he published online going back several years. In August 2020, Mohn published an online “pamphlet” in which he tried to make the case that people born in or after 1991 — his birth year — should carry out what he termed a “bloody revolution.” He also complained at length about a lawsuit that he lost and encouraged assassinations of family members and public officials.
A man who lived in apartments with Mohn about a decade ago in Colorado Springs recalled hearing Mohn talk at length about conspiracy theories. Davis Rebhan said he left the living situation shortly after Mohn became volatile one night and damaged the walls and other objects.
Mohn’s only visitor during the year they lived together was his father, who visited for a weekend, Rebhan said.
“I got nothing from that visit that would have made me ever think this would happen,” Rebhan said. “There was nothing that would lead me to believe that Justin didn’t care about his dad. And it was really clear that his dad cared about him because it was clear he had these issues and his dad still came across the country to stay with him.”
In 2018, Mohn sued Progressive Insurance, alleging he was discriminated against and later fired from a job at an agency in Colorado Springs because he was a man who was intelligent, overqualified and overeducated. A federal judge said Mohn provided no evidence to indicate he was discriminated against because he was a man — in the length of his training or in being denied promotions to jobs. Progressive said it fired him because he kicked open a door. An appeals court upheld the finding that Mohn did not suffer employment discrimination.
Mohn worked for Progressive from October 2016 until August 2017 and sued the company after his employment ended, spokesperson Jeff Sibel said via email. He did not offer any further comment.
Middletown Township Police Chief Joe Bartorilla said his department had three prior interactions with Mohn before Tuesday's incident.
The first incident, in 2011, occurred when Mohn was arguing with someone in the driveway of his home, Bartorilla said. No charges were filed in that incident.
Then, in 2019, Mohn called police and claimed he had been threatened by the insurance company he was suing, according to Bartorilla.
Finally, in 2023, Mohn's employer from Philadelphia called Middletown Township Police and expressed concern over his behavior and writings at work, Bartorilla said.
“[The employer] wanted legal advice on how to go about terminating his employment which we don’t do,” Bartorilla said. “We did refer the employer to seek out legal resources for that and also because it was in Philadelphia to refer anything work-related, if there was concern, to the Philadelphia Police Department.”
Chief Bartorilla also addressed rumors of other interactions police may have had with Mohn in the past.
“We keep hearing that police were outside of his home at various times outside of what I just mentioned," Bartorilla said. "I can only speak for the Middletown Township Police Department. We were not.”
Mohn's neighbors in Levittown described him as a regular walker in the development, someone they recognized for his odd behavior.
Bart DeHaven said he called police a handful of times since the summer after Justin Mohn sat on a raised manhole cover in a park directly across the street from his home and stared at his house.
“It’s just sad,” DeHaven said Wednesday morning. “He should have got some kind of help.”
Carrie McCarthy said she saw him walking frequently and sitting in the wooded area in the neighborhood. She said someone sent her the YouTube video, which left her stunned.
“I screamed. I totally screamed,” she said. “I opened the video and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the guy I see every day, and I knew something was unhinged with him.’”
Schorn said Mohn legally purchased a firearm at a gun shop in Croydon, Bristol Township, on Jan. 29, the day before the murder. She also said Mohn had no history of diagnosed mental health issues.
“Any time we have a murder case, we anticipate what issues we may face in the subsequent prosecution. One of the things we always look at is, is there going to be a later claim of insanity. That is a very specific definition where somebody is unaware of the nature and consequences of their actions,” Schorn said. “I can state with the evidence that we’ve gathered thus far, this individual was acting with clear mind, aware of his actions, and proud of his consequences.”
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