John Jefferson
Left: Joseph Gerdvil moments before he was shot (Orange County Sheriff’s Department). Right inset: in a photo from his Facebook page.
California authorities have released video of the July shooting and wounding of a man suspected of beheading his two parents and the family dog in a mobile home, and the bodycam shows the defendant begging authorities to put a bullet in his head as he sang Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It” and Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You.”
Orange County Jail records reviewed by Law&Crime show that Joseph Brandon Gerdvil, who will turn 42 this coming October, has been in custody since the afternoon of July 13, which was four days after his parents, 77-year-old Ronald Gerdvil and 79-year-old Antoinette Gerdvil, were found dead and without heads at their San Juan Mobile Estates residence in San Juan Capistrano.
According to the the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Gerdvil on that day decapitated his parents, left one head on a counter, mutilated their dog and then took off in a golf cart from the scene. The video released by authorities, which was edited to include a narration and subtitles, began with dispatcher audio, describing a 911 call of a family member who said they received text messages from Gerdvil showing photographs of “elderly relatives” appearing to be “severely injured.”
The caller, a cousin, relayed at around 7:30 a.m. that Gerdvil had mental health issues and had been violent in the past, authorities said.
Gerdvil, the dispatcher could be heard saying, was also spotted covered and blood, chasing after a maintenance worker with a fork, and driving in a golf cart near condos.
Around 20 minutes later, the bodycam video showed, deputies encountered Gerdvil in the street.
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“Get on the ground right now!” a deputy yelled as the suspect approached with something in his hand, apparently a metal water meter.
When the blood-covered defendant kept walking forward, a deputy fired five times — and Gerdvil could be heard shouting “f— you!” as he fell to the ground.
As he was on his stomach and placed in cuffs by other deputies, the defendant said “I love you” and “I’m sorry you’re going to have to die.”
Moments later, he begged authorities to end his life then and there.
“Finish me off. Just finish me off. Put one in my head. Put one in my head, please,” he said. “I beg of you.”
The already disturbing set of circumstances got all the more jarring when the suspect started singing love-themed lyrics from Tina Turner and Stevie Wonder hits.
“What’s love got to do, got to do with it?” Gerdvil sang. “What’s love but a second-hand emotion?”
“I just called to say I love you,” he sang with even more emphasis.
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