Matthew Taylor Coleman shocked his family and friends after he killed his two children over QAnon theories.
According to his friends, Coleman showed no warning signs before the tragic event took place.
On Monday, the 40-year-old father was arrested after driving his 2-year-old son and 10-month old daughter into Mexico and killed with a spearfishing gun.
Coleman allegedly told authorities that he killed the children because of conspiracy theories of QAnon and that he believed his children had serpent DNA and that they needed to be killed to save the world, PEOPLE reported.
Coleman’s family and friends are trying to make sense of his sudden act of violence. They knew him to be a devoted dad who would regularly post pictures of his family on social media.
“It just doesn’t compute,” Coleman’s friend Rachel Woodby tells PEOPLE. “This is not the man I know. But it’s absolutely disgusting. It makes me sick to my stomach. I’m horrified. I thought he was a good person.”
Coleman was a surf instructor who was described as a generous, pleasant person who was good with his students.
“He was patient and kind,” said Woodby, whose son took surfing lessons from Coleman. “This really comes out of the blue. He had no warning signs that he was capable of doing this.”
A 10-page criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court on Wednesday claims Coleman said he was “enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife, A.C., possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children.”
“M. Coleman stated that he believed his children were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them,” FBI special agent Jennifer Bannon wrote.
Bannon also writes that Coleman detailed how he killed his daughter first by shooting her in her heart. Then he allegedly killed his son, who did not die right away, so he shot him several times.
“M. Coleman stated that he knew it was wrong,” Bannon wrote, “but it was the only course of action that would save the world.”
Coleman will face charges of foreign murder of U.S. nationals and remains in federal custody without bond.
He has not entered a plea and will be arraigned on Aug. 31.
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