It has been claimed that a father killed a paedophile with a shovel and moose antlers after becoming suspicious that the man was following his daughter.
After Lawrence V. Scully, 77, was discovered dead at his house in Grand Marais, Minnesota, Levi Axtell, 27, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
Axtell is thought to have been concerned that Scully, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl in 1979, wouldn’t be around his 22-month-old daughter.
He accused Scully of parking his van outside his child’s daycare in 2018, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. He applied for an order of protection which was granted, but then dismissed within several weeks.
A hearing heard Axtell arrived at the sheriff’s office covered in blood and ‘put his hands on his head and said that he had murdered Scully with a shovel’.
Axtell told officers he hit Scully 15 to 20 times with the large spade and then ‘finished him off’ with a large moose antler.
The police found the paedophile, who was released from prison in 1982, in his home ‘obviously dead from the serious nature of his head wounds’.
There had been recent allegations against him before he died, mostly regarding harassment, but an investigation ‘didn’t reveal anything’.
Axtell remains in custody in Cook County and his next court appearance is scheduled for April 10.
Defence attorney Dennis Shaw noted Axtell had no serious criminal history until now and labelled him a minimal flight risk.
His bail was set at $1 million (£830,640).