Despite suffering seven bullet wounds earlier this month, an 11-year-old girl survived and was able to tell investigators about the massacre of her family members, including a 3-month-old baby.
According to a report in the Washington Post, 33-year-old ex-Marine Bryan Riley believed a girl named “Amber” was a sex trafficking victim being held in the house of 40-year-old Justice Gleason – the 11-year-old’s father – in Lakeland Fla. This belief motivated Riley to break into the Gleason’s home Sept. 5.
“Do you know why I killed your parents?” Riley, who has served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, allegedly asked the 11-year-old. “They’re sex traffickers.”
Amber, however, doesn’t exist.
Investigators say Riley was on what he described as a “mission from God” to rescue the imaginary child when he went to kill the family.
Riley had told a friend the day before the massacre that he wanted to help with Hurricane Ida relief efforts and requested a first aid kit.
He encountered Gleason, who was mowing his front yard, the night before the murders after leaving the friend’s house around 7 p.m. Sept. 4 near North Socrum Loop Road.
When he saw Gleason, Riley said that God told the him he needed to talk to a girl named Amber because she was going to kill herself and then refused to leave until he could speak to her. Gleason told Riley that he didn’t know what he was talking about and asked him to leave. Eventually, Riley angrily drove off, said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
After returning to his home, Riley argued with his girlfriend about whether God was sending him messages, said Judd. At the time, he did not reveal plans to commit violence. Then, his girlfriend went to bed and Riley made a plan to kill Gleason’s family and rescue the imaginary girl. Judd said Riley confessed this to investigators.
Riley can be seen on surveillance footage his home around 1 a.m. in a black Ford F-150, according to Judd. He drove back to the Gleason’s home to check for easy entrance points, positioned his car for an easy escape, slashed the tires on the family’s cars and set up glow sticks in a path up to the house.
Related
Judd said Riley doused both of the Gleason family cars in gasoline next and “tried to set them ablaze as decoys.” Though only the truck caught fire, Riley – dressed in a bulletproof vest and armed with three guns – continued into a mother-in-law apartment attached to the home. He killed 62-year-old Catherine Delgado, grandmother of the 3-month-old, and began searching for the non-existent suicidal girl.
Upon entering the main house, Riley shot the family’s dog. He then shot Gleason, Gleason’s his 33-year-old girlfriend, Theresa Lanham, and their 3-month-old son as they tried to barricade themselves in a bathroom along with the 11-year-old.
Riley took the girl to the living room after her family was dead and tortured her while demanding to know where “Amber” was. He shot her in her thigh, stomach and legs. Riley tried to kill her when she couldn’t tell him about the imaginary girl.
“I played dead and I prayed,” she said, according to Judd. As of Friday, the girl was in an intensive care unit.
Eventually, law enforcement arrived and ended up in a shootout with Riley. His abdomen was grazed by a bullet that went through his vest. After dressing his wound, Riley surrendered to officers.
“He was a coward, an absolute coward,” Judd said. “He looks like a man, but he’s not a man. He’s a sniveling coward.”
Judd said he wishes they would have killed him, according to the Washington Post.
Riley has been charged with four first-degree murder counts and other felonies, said the outlet. He is being held at the Polk County jail without bond and a judge has appointed a public defender to represent him.
Related
