WALLED LAKE, Mich. (WXYZ) — WALLED LAKE, Mich. (WXYZ) — Rebecca Lanis, 21, said her grandmother called her Sunday morning and asked if she was in the hospital.
Unaware of the tragedy that unfolded at her home in Walled Lake, Rebecca said she found that to be a strange question. She said she was at a friend's sleepover.
Rebecca soon learned her father shot her sister and mother. Her sister was critically injured. Her mother was killed.
“I had a really close bond with my mom, and I can’t believe she’s not here," Rebecca said.
The Oakland County sheriff said when officers responded to the home, 52-year-old Igor Lanis opened fire on them. A Walled Lake police officer and an Oakland County sheriff's deputy returned fire and killed him.
The sheriff's department said Igor had also killed the family dog.
Rebecca said her father had never been physically violent, but his behavior started spiraling about two years ago.
“He became a different person after 2020 when Trump lost," Rebecca said.
She said he started getting more agitated at normal things and that he often found a way to bring up conspiracies about the vaccine, 5G and electromagnetic fields.
Rebecca also said her father turned to extremism like QAnon, a political conspiracy theory and political movement. It centers around baseless claims that former President Donald Trump was fighting enemies within a so-called "deep state" and a sex-trafficking ring run by satanic cannibals.
Rebecca said her family's tragedy is a warning for people to pay attention to their loved ones who may need help.
"I think that people need to focus more on radicalization, Qanon. And if they have relatives with guns who are like this, you need to get them help and they need to get checked into a mental institution, even if you think they're not dangerous," she advised.
This story was originally reported by Darren Cunningham and Brian Schwartz on wxyz.com.
