Brian Mcgann Jr. beat his father, Brian Mcgann Sr., to death at this home, say deputies in Palm Beach County, Florida. (Mug shot: Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office; screenshot: WPTV)
A man beat his father to death while on the phone with a woman and ranting, according to a probable cause affidavit out of Palm Beach County, Florida.
“He is under my foot,” Brian John Mcgann Jr., 44, allegedly told the listener while he was killing Brian John Mcgann Sr.
The woman, a family friend, described the defendant as a conspiracy theorist who had recently started using cocaine and was upset his father had gotten, in the affidavit’s paraphrasing, “the vaccine.”
According to documents, the woman said that Mcgann Jr. called her Sunday night and told her frantically to pack her possessions and leave the home because, in his words, “He was going to be dead.”
She found this troubling and strange because she lived in the Clayton County community of Middleburg — far up in the north of the state. Palm Beach County is in the southern portion of Florida near Miami.
Mcgann Jr. allegedly said inexplicably that he was being chased by law enforcement, but he later admitted that he was, in fact, not being chased.
At 11:07 a.m., he said he was pulling into his father’s home, according to documents.
“At 11:10 p.m., February 04, 2024, another phone call was placed where the complainant overheard Brian Mcgann Jr. aggressively screaming at Brian Mcgann Sr.,” deputies wrote. “During this altercation, the complainant could hear Brian Mcgann Jr. violently attacking Brian Mcgann Sr.”
The woman heard slapping noises.
The phone call went for 20 minutes, as the situation became more violent and chaotic, documents said. She asked about Mcgann Sr.’s welfare. The son allegedly said, “He is under my foot.”
She described that during the violence, she overheard Mcgann Jr. asking for the combination to his father’s safe.
The woman also overheard the victim say, “Stop, you are killing me,” at one point in the call, according to documents.
She called 911.
Deputies said they arrived to find Mcgann Jr. jumping a back gate into a backyard, clearly hiding from them.
“The complainant further added Brian Mcgann Jr. is a delusional conspiracy theorist and he was upset with his father because he recently learned his father received the vaccine,” deputies wrote without elaborating on the kind of vaccine.
Authorities said they found Mcgann Sr. unresponsive. Blood covered his clothes completely, and his face was extremely swollen, battered, and bruised. There was blood all over the living room, with spatter on the wall and furniture. The medical examiner’s office determined he died of blunt force trauma.
Mcgann Jr.’s is currently held without bond at the Main Detention Center. His public defender, Scott Pribble, declined to comment when Law&Crime reached out.
