MILWAUKEE -- A 15-year-old Milwaukee girl recounted the horrifying moments her parents were killed in court Tuesday.
Dan Popp has pleaded no contest to a triple murder in a south side apartment complex in March of 2016. He is asking a jury to find him not guilty by mental defect or disease.
"Mr. Popp took my dad and he pointed a gun at him. Then he racked the gun and said, 'Let's not let the kids see this.' Then he closed the door," said the daughter who the judge does not want to be identified.
The family of Phia and Mai Vue and Jesus Manso-Perez believe their murders were hate crimes. The Vues are Hmong and Manso-Perez Hispanic. He was heard saying "you guys have got to go" before first shooting Manso-Perez.
His interrogation after the murders showed him eating, crying then yelling about zombies.
"There's a bunch of zombies down there," said Popp as he threw over a chair and pushed the table in the interrogation room.
The Vue's 15-year-old daughter said the family was eating dinner when they heard a shot in the hall. Popp had killed Manso-Perez and he was coming towards their apartment.
"As we were hiding we heard a loud noise and it sounded like the door was broke," said the daughter.
The family including three children and their aunt were hiding together. Popp came in with a rifle and took Phia Vue from the room. They heard shots and then he opened the bedroom door.
"I saw my lifeless brother laying there," said the aunt who is also not to be identified.
The family said Popp ordered the rest of the family upstairs. They resisted.
"Mr. Popp dragged my sister out. He dragged her of our apartment," said the daughter. "My mom said, 'Don't take my daughter.'"
He killed her mother, Mia Vue upstairs. The rest of her family was able to escape. Police arrested Popp at the apartment.
If found not guilty by mental disease, Popp will be sent to a mental health facility. If he is found guilty he will go to prison.
