An ordinary Minnesota man took a terrifyingly extraordinary step when he thought his young daughter was being stalked by a known sexual predator.
In a harrowing display of vigilantism, a Minnesota father exacted gruesome justice on a 77-year-old registered sex offender, whom he believed had targeted his innocent daughter. Levi Axtell, the 27-year-old protector, employed brutal weapons—a pair of moose antlers and a shovel—to deliver what he deemed was a well-deserved fate to Lawrence Scully, the convicted predator.
The ghastly tale ended with a blood-spattered Axtell, remorseless and unhesitating, walking into the sheriff’s office to confess his act of perceived necessary violence.
In the disturbing backstory, Scully, a man with a notorious history of preying on children, was found guilty in 1979 for the molestation of a six-year-old girl. The fact that a man like Scully could still roam freely has been a source of consternation for many, including Axtell, who grew increasingly suspicious of Scully’s frequent appearances in areas densely populated with children.
Unable to bear the idea of his young daughter falling prey to Scully’s predatory gaze, Axtell took a step that would forever change their lives.
Hailing from Cook County, Minnesota, Axtell’s fear for his child’s safety was not unwarranted or abrupt. In fact, back in 2018, he had filed for and obtained an order of protection against Scully, evidence of his long-standing wariness of the sex offender.
Mysteriously though, this protection order was later rescinded, the reasons for which remain undisclosed. Adding fuel to Axtell’s worries, Scully was committed to a mental institution in 2020, only to be released after a while with a prescription for anti-psychotic drugs.
As per the recent criminal complaint against Axtell, he enacted his violent retaliation against Scully within the confines of the latter’s own apartment. The initial attack involved a savage beating with a shovel, followed by the delivering of the final death blow with a sizable moose antler. Scully’s vehicle, too, did not escape Axtell’s wrath and bore visible signs of damage post the assault.
The complaint further outlined the gruesome details of the attack. Axtell trespassed into Scully’s residence around 4:45 pm, armed himself with a shovel found on the deck, and mercilessly struck the elderly man about fifteen to twenty times.
The fatal end came with a moose antler, conveniently found within the premises. Axtell’s long-standing suspicions of Scully’s predatory nature, based on his frequent sighting of Scully’s vehicle near children-populated locations, were highlighted in the complaint as the primary catalyst for his act.
The chilling aftermath of this bloody vengeance was discovered by a Cook County Sheriff’s Deputy who found Scully with severe head trauma, drenched in blood and undoubtedly deceased. His brutal end was a stark testament to the savage encounter that had taken place.
Post the murderous act, a visibly shaken and bloodied Axtell turned himself in at the sheriff’s office. His confession to the killing was accompanied by a display of raw emotion, his head in his hands, underscoring the gravity of his actions.
Scully, a man whose past was marked by despicable acts of child molestation, had led an unsettling life. In the 1970s, at the age of 33, he was incarcerated for violating a six-year-old girl in Minnesota.
Bizarrely, in 2014, he even attempted a run for mayorship in Grand Marais, Minnesota. However, by 2018, he found himself facing additional allegations of sexual misconduct against children. This tale offers a stark reminder of the danger predators pose and the drastic measures a parent, like Axtell, might take when the system fails to ensure the safety of their children.
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Source: AWM