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A 32-year-old is said to have murdered his father in the US state of Pennsylvania and then posted a brutal video of the victim's severed head online. According to a statement from the responsible law enforcement agency, the crime occurred on Tuesday evening (local time) in the city of Levittown, around 40 minutes' drive from Philadelphia. The police arrested the suspect early on Wednesday morning (local time).
US media reported that the 14-minute video was available on YouTube for hours and reached more than 5,000 views before it was removed from the online platform. It is supposed to show the alleged perpetrator holding up a transparent plastic bag that apparently contains a severed head.
The man identified himself by his full name, repeated conspiracy theories from the right-wing spectrum and called his father a traitor because he worked for the government. According to the reports, he also made threats against several US federal agencies and mentioned US President Joe Biden.
The law enforcement agency said the video played a role in the search for the alleged perpetrator. After his arrest, he was charged with, among other things, murder and desecration of corpses.
Images are also distributed at X
The brutal case occurred while the leaders of Meta, TikTok and other platforms were being questioned before the US Senate in Washington. The topic: protection of minors on the Internet. At the hearing, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, among others, apologized to families about the impact of social media on children at the urging of Republican Senator Josh Hawley.
Regarding the case in Pennsylvania, a spokesman for YouTube, which is part of the Google Group, said that the man's video and channel had been deleted. Attempts to upload again by other users are prevented. However, the gruesome images have now spread to X (formerly Twitter). They were visible there for around seven hours and were viewed around 20,000 times.
jok/dpa