A 41-year-old man accused of decapitating his parents and killing their dog started to sing Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It” after he was shot by an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy.
Joseph Brandon Gerdvil was arrested on suspicion of killing his parents, 77-year-old Ronald Walter Gerdvil and 79-year-old Antoinette Gerdvil in their San Juan Capistrano home on July 9, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
In body camera video of the incident released Friday, a blood-soaked Gerdvil is shown with a metal object in his hand approaching a sheriff’s deputy moments before he is shot, then swearing and singing after he’s on the ground wounded.
Authorities say the series of disturbing events began with Gerdvil text messaging photos of his bloodied mother to a cousin.
That relative called 911 around 7:30 a.m. to report a possible domestic assault on their elderly relatives who live in a mobile home community in the 32000 block of Alipaz Street, authorities said. She told dispatchers her cousin suffers from mental health issues and has been violent in the past.
Another dispatcher, meanwhile, received a 911 call from a maintenance worker at the same mobile home community who reported they were being chased by a bloodied man with a fork, authorities said.
The bloodied man, later identified as Gerdvil, drove off in the maintenance worker’s golf cart in an unknown direction.
Sheriff’s deputies who arrived at the scene found a person on the ground bleeding and a gruesome scene inside Gerdvil’s parents’ home.
“There’s a head on the counter,” one of the deputies on scene told dispatchers.
Gerdvil reappeared on a bike path a short time later and then approached a Sheriff’s Department community service officer as she sat in her vehicle, according to authorities. He then threw a shovel at the officer’s vehicle and drove off in the golf cart.
Body camera footage shows what happened next: A blood-soaked Gerdvil parked the golf cart on the sidewalk and approached a deputy while carrying a metal object.
He ignored the deputy’s orders and shouted something unintelligible before the deputy fired five times and Gerdvil fell to the ground.
“F— you,” Gerdvil said as he lay on the ground wounded.
Gerdvil then rolled onto his stomach and was handcuffed.
He can be heard telling deputies “I love you” and “I’m sorry you’re gonna have to die” while facing the ground.
As deputies assessed his wounds, Gerdvil said, “Finish me off.”
“Put one in my head, please. I beg of you,” he said.
At one point as he lay on the ground bleeding, and law enforcement and first responders moved frantically around the crime scene, Gerdvil broke out into song.
“What’s love got to do with it. What’s love, but a secondhand emotion?” he sang softly, quoting the 1984 Tina Turner hit.
He then shifted to Stevie Wonder and sang, “I just called to say I love you” as the deputies gave him medical attention.
It’s unclear how many times he was hit but the unnamed deputy who shot Gerdvil later told other deputies on the scene he aimed for his chest and stomach.
Gerdvil was booked on suspicion of two counts of homicide and remains at the hospital, according to authorities.
There were no deputies injured and the shooting is under investigation by the Orange County district attorney’s office. The killings are under investigation by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department homicide detail.
