Alt-righter 'Seattle4Truth' Charged With Killing Father Over Conspiracy Theories
Lane Davis, 33, was obsessed with liberal ‘pedophilia,’ and allegedly accused his dad before stabbing him to death.
[Cross-posted at Hatewatch.]
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. – Lane Maurice Davis is a well-known and at times popular alt-right social-media figure who uses the nom de plume “Seattle4Truth,” even though in reality he lived in rural Skagit County near the town of Bow, on Samish Island in Puget Sound, about 75 miles distant. His YouTube videos frequently have garnered thousands of views, and he wrote for the popular alt-right site The Ralph Retort. At one time, he was reportedly employed as a researcher for Milo Yiannopoulos.
Earlier this summer, under his own name, the 33-year-old stabbed his 73-year-old father — Charles “Chuck” Davis, a highly regarded civic leader in the Skagit County area and longtime attorney — to death during a heated argument over the younger Davis’ obsessive beliefs in conspiracy theories.
According to witnesses, Davis accused his father of “pedophilia” – based not on anything he had experienced, but on his belief in conspiracy theories that liberals are secretly organizing nefarious pedophilia rings around the globe (and in one case, even on Mars). Earlier this year, one of his “Seattle4Truth” videosdescribed “progressive ideology’s deep ties to pedophilia”.
The stabbing occurred on Friday, July 14, and Davis was arraigned in his father’s murder the next day. However, it wasn’t until after his Aug. 10 plea hearing, at which he pleaded not guilty, that he was recognized on social media as none other than “Seattle4Truth” by journalist Ian Miles Cheong.
According to documents filed at Skagit County District Court, the younger Davis picked a fight with his parents on July 14, calling them “leftists” and “pedophiles.” Charles Davis recorded one of the arguments on his cellphone, and it made clear that Lane threatened several times to kill his father.
Acccording to statements Lane Davis gave police, his father attempted to kick him out of the house, and had told his son that he had called police to eject him. The younger Davis claimed Charles Davis had called him a racist and a Nazi, an affidavit filed in the case states. Grabbing a kitchen knife, Lane Davis then stabbed his father in the chest multiple times. Charles Davis was dead when police arrived.
In the town of Bow, Lane Davis was largely an anonymous nobody who lived off his parents. Charles Davis’ death, however, struck home for many people who were close to him.
Angie Mashaw, Lane Davis’s aunt observed to the Skagit Valley Herald that her sister, Catherine Davis, essentially lost both her husband and son in one horrible act. Both the family and the larger community who knew her brother-in-law, Mashaw said, were devastated.
"This island is in mourning," Mashaw said. "Our family loved him dearly. He was the brother I never had," she said.
However, in the larger virtual universe of the Internet, and particularly in the corridors of the alt-right, Lane Davis was a big somebody: “Seattle4Truth,” a somewhat popular contributor to the many conspiracy theories that fuel the movement’s far-right belief systems. He was best known for his many YouTube videos, all of which were dedicated to promoting a wide range of theories.