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, Lanis said she found that to be a strange question. She said she was at a friend's sleepover.
Lanis 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," Lanis told 7 Action News.
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 Igor Lanis.
The sheriff's department said Igor Lanis had also killed the family dog.
Rebecca Lanis 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 Lanis 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 Lanis 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.
“Online extremism, QAnon, right-wing extremism," Rebecca Lanis said.
She said this 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.
The sheriff's office said Rachel's condition has been upgraded from critical to stable after surgery.
