Hatchet Murder Suspect Tried To Buy Gun: TBI

NASHVILLE, TN — Accused hatchet killer Domenic Micheli failed a TBI background check when he tried to buy a gun just days before a fatal attack at a Belle Meade gym, the agency announced Tuesday.

Micheli, 36, attempted to buy the gun from a Williamson County store May 30, six days before he allegedly walked into Balance Fitness on Harding Pike and killed his former boss, gym owner Joel Paavola. The mandated background check barred the sale, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.

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Micheli, who declared on Facebook he is the "Sun of God” and was arrested near the White House in April, was taken into custody near Bowling Green by Kentucky State Police 36 hours after the June 5 attack and remains jailed, charged with first degree murder. Police say he confessed “in detail” to the murder.

MORE: GoFundMe Launched For Joel Paavola

Micheli, who police believe may have been on the West Coast some time after he was fired by Paavola in 2017, had previously been arrested for unlawful entry and failure to obey an officer near the White House late on the night of April 28, according to a Washington, D.C. police report obtained by Patch, after pulling his car to a security checkpoint and refusing to move. A court-appointed psychiatrist who examined Micheli after that arrest found him competent to stand trial.

According to his LinkedIn page, Micheli was a personal trainer at the gym. Metro Police said he was fired by Paavola approximately 14 months ago. As Micheli was a fairly well-known member of the fitness community, at least one area gym - Boost Fit Club on Vaughn’s Gap - added extra security and closed early the day of the attack.

Micheli's Facebook page is full of blank verse poetry, in which he claims to be the "Sun of God" (or occasionally, the "Son of God"). He appears to be out of contact with his family, many of whom placed comments in recent weeks on his posts urging him to come home or call them.

In one chilling post written April 8, Micheli wrote he was visiting a Jewish temple.

“i wont be armed. i have two small knives and a hatchet in my car," he wrote (his syntax preserved).

Police said knives and a hatchet were in Micheli’s car after his arrest in Kentucky.

In another post, he makes a reference to “Nurse Mayinga.” Mayinga N’Seka was a nurse in what was then Zaire who died from Ebola in 1976. She is often considered, incorrectly, the index case - or “Patient Zero” - of the disease. In that post, Micheli discusses index cases and says he “can kill nine tenths of the world population and be within justice.”

He mentions “abaddon,” the name of both a bottomless pit and a vengeful angel in the Bible.

On May 26, he began by writing "There will not be any mercy doled out after this post."

In his most recent post on June 1, he wrote, among other things, "Truly, no one has been actually honest to God with me yet. In fact, though there are the faithful and faithless, I've opened up a drastic separation even from my own people, the faithful, over the last week."

Photo via Metro Police