An ex-Marine accused of killing four people in Florida told police he did it to rescue a sex trafficking victim after receiving a message from God.
“God told me to kill everyone and rescue Amber because she is a victim of sex trafficking,” Brian Riley, 33 told police.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news conference on Thursday, Riley approach Justice Gleason, 40 in his yard around 7 p.m on Saturday while he was mowing his lawn. Riley told Gleason that God gave him a vision that his daughter “Amber” would commit suicide, Judd said, according to WESH 2 News.
When Gleason told him there was no one living there name ‘Amber’ and threatened to call the police, Riley told him there was no need for that since “I’m the cops for God.” Riley drove away “very angry”, according to Judd because he believed Gleason kept him away from the person he thought would die by suicide.
He returned hours later at 4:22 a.m. Sunday morning and killed Gleason, his girlfriend Theresa Lanham, 33, the couple’s 3-month-old son, and Lanham’s mother, Cathy Delgado 62.
Judd said Riley found the 11-year-old survivor and tortured her to find out where Amber was. Riley told her he killed her parents because “they’re sex traffickers.”
He shot her seven times and thought he’d killed her, but she survived.
“He was a coward, an absolute coward. He looks like a man, but he’s not a man, he’s a sniveling coward,” Judd said of Riley. “He was a bad dude when he went into this house and shot and killed a 3-month-old baby in its mother’s arms.”
Riley said he felt no remorse even though there were no victims of sex trafficking in the house.
Riley has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder of law enforcement officer, two counts of shooting into building, two counts of armed burglary with assault/battery, second-degree arson and attempted murder in the first-degree with weapon.
He was denied bond.
