As of: February 1, 2024, 12:55 p.m
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The city of Levittown is about 40 minutes' drive from Philadelphia.
© Matt Rourke/AP
A cruel video circulated on YouTube for five hours.
Using this footage, the US police are tracking down a 32-year-old who is said to have murdered his father.
Washington/Levittown - A man is said to have murdered his father in the US state of Pennsylvania and then posted a brutal video of the victim's severed head on the Internet.
According to a statement from the responsible law enforcement agency, the crime occurred on Tuesday evening (local time) in the city of Levittown, around 40 minutes' drive from Philadelphia.
The police arrested the 32-year-old suspect early on Wednesday morning (local time).
According to police, the 14-minute video was available on YouTube for around five hours and reached more than 5,000 views before it was removed from the online platform.
It is supposed to show the alleged perpetrator holding up a transparent plastic bag that apparently contains a severed head.
Son calls father a traitor
The man identified himself by his full name, repeated conspiracy theories from the right-wing spectrum and called his father a traitor because he worked for the government.
According to the reports, he also made threats against several US federal agencies and mentioned US President Joe Biden.
The law enforcement agency said the video played a role in the search for the alleged perpetrator.
After his arrest, he was charged with, among other things, murder and desecration of corpses.
YouTube now has to ask itself why the cruel video was not removed from the platform sooner.
A spokesman for the Google video platform told the New York Times that the video had been removed from the Internet because it violated YouTube's guidelines on depicting violence.
In addition, the suspect's channel was closed due to violating the guidelines for violent extremism.
Now we will make sure that the video is not uploaded again.
dpa