A video game fanatic in Florida shot and killed his father after being told to get a job.
Joseph David Voigt, 23, admitted he shot his parents Saturday night at their Bartow home after his upset father started talking about making something of himself and getting a job instead of spending all his time playing video games. the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.
The shooting left his 63-year-old father, Marvin Voigt, dead and his 58-year-old mother, Susan Voigt, in critical condition.
Saturday evening around 11:20 p.m., Susan reported that her son shot both her and her husband before fleeing the home in the family car. Fox 13 News reported.
Bartow police officers arrived on the scene and discovered Marvin lying dead in the driveway with apparent gunshot wounds.
Susan was found inside the home with multiple gunshot wounds – one of which was a serious wound to the head – prompting fire and EMS crews to take life-saving measures on her before transporting her to the hospital, where she remained in the stable. critical condition, WDBJ7 reported.
Bartow police officers contacted the sheriff’s office for assistance in searching for Joseph, who fled the scene after allegedly pulling the trigger.
A notice was issued to law enforcement agencies in Polk County and surrounding areas to be on the lookout for the suspect’s vehicle.
Joseph David Voigt, 23, admitted to shooting his parents at their Bartow home Saturday night after his upset father started talking about making something of himself and getting a job instead of spending all his time playing video games
Bartow police officers arrived at the home on Highland Boulevard, where they found 63-year-old Marvin Voigt dead in the driveway and 58-year-old Susan Voigt seriously injured inside the home.
Police finally spotted the suspect’s car on International Drive around 2 a.m.
Joseph was then arrested and taken to the Orange County Jail, where he awaits extradition to the Polk County Jail on charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.
Joseph is no stranger to the legal system and has prior arrests involving battery charges.
He was recently arrested last October for shooting a gun into the ground fifteen times while in a residential area because he was “bored.” WFLA reported.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, he sprayed two people with mace after they asked him what he was doing in the neighborhood.
Just a week later he allegedly shot his parents.
At the time of the shooting, he was out on a $2,000 misdemeanor bond in connection with the mace incident.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic and senseless shooting,” Bartow Police Chief Stephen Walker said.
Joseph is awaiting extradition to the Polk County Jail on charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder
The suspect spoke with Polk County police deputies and admitted to shooting both of his parents
The alleged killing comes just months after a Florida teen stabbed his mother to death, a year after she freed him for shooting his father in Oklahoma.
On September 8, 17-year-old Collin Griffith called police to say his mother Catherine had “fallen” on his knife during an argument.
But witnesses reported seeing him dragged out of the house by her hair two hours earlier, and a medical examiner found she had been stabbed twice in the neck.
A year earlier, Catherine had paid $50,000 to bail her son out of jail after he shot and killed his father, claiming he did it in self-defense.
On the day of her death, she texted a neighbor: “I have an appointment with his parole officer on Monday morning if he doesn’t come home by 10 today. He knows the time and the deadline.
“He chooses to skip it and hide at my mother’s house in Polk County, which is also a violation.”
In her last text she wrote: ‘He doesn’t want to listen. I’m going to drive to get him and if he doesn’t get in the car, Polk County can deal with him.”
Polk County police arrived on the scene around 6:30 p.m. after Griffith called to say his mother had injured herself, but he reportedly showed “zero remorse” upon their arrival.
Griffith was arrested for murder and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office asked the prosecutor to charge him as an adult.
A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said they are investigating whether to re-file charges against him in his father’s death.
“If Oklahoma had been able to take action, Catherine would still be alive and well today,” said Sheriff Grady Judd.
“But because she took him in and tried to do what a mother should do and take care of him, she is now dead.
‘He shot his father dead at the age of 17 and got away with it, and stabbed his mother so hard in the neck that the knife went all the way through.’
‘Now he has murdered two people, and murdered his mother and father, and based on his behavior I can assure you that if he had gone to live with his grandmother at the end of this period, and she had crossed him, she would be the next would be.’