Father of Convicted Killer Mackenzie Shirilla Says She Would Have Used Her Boyfriend's Guns If She Wanted Him Dead

The father of Mackenzie Shirilla, convicted of murdering her boyfriend and a friend in a 2022 car crash, has renewed his claims of her innocence in a May 28 interview — pointing to guns allegedly kept in her boyfriend's home as evidence the crash was not intentional.

Mackenzie was found guilty of killing her boyfriend, 20-year-old Dominic Russ, and their friend, 19-year-old Davion Flanagan — she is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life.

Her conviction stemmed from a July 2022 crash in which prosecutors alleged she intentionally drove her car into a wall at high speed, killing Russ and Flanagan

In a recent interview with True Crime This Week, released on May 28, 2026, Steve Shirilla maintained that his daughter Mackenzie, is innocent and suggested that if she had intended to kill Dominic, she would have shot him instead, referring to guns allegedly in the boyfriend's house.

"And I would think if my daughter was that mad at that boy to want to kill him that way, Davion would have never been in the car, right? That makes no sense. If she was going to do that to Dom. There were guns all over that kid's house," he said.

When the interviewer asked him about where the guns possibly came from, Steve shrugged and said, "He bought them. I don't know. I don't know."

Furthermore, he alleged that he knows about the guns because he saw Dom's guns in his daughter's truck, claiming there were 10 to 15 guns, half of which were loaded.

"The reason I know he has guns because something was going on over there, and he took all the guns and threw them in my daughter's trunk. And I went into my daughter's trunk to get something. And in the trunk there was 10, 15 guns. Half of them were loaded," Steve said.

Shirilla's case has gained renewed attention after the release of a new Netflix documentary, The Crash, which explores the incident that claimed the lives of two people.

According to Cleveland 19 News, her father was placed on administrative leave from his teaching position at Mary Queen of Peace School following comments he made in the documentary.

"We are investigating allegations made on social media that one of our teachers has demonstrated poor judgement. Upon learning of the allegation the school acted immediately and placed the teacher on administrative leave. The investigation is ongoing. We want every parent and family to know that the safety, wellbeing, and trust of our students remain among our highest priorities. We take all student concerns seriously and are committed to responding promptly and responsibly whenever concerns are brought forward," the school wrote while announcing Steve Shirilla's leave from school.

They continued:

"While we are limited in what we can share during an active personnel investigation, please know that we are reviewing the matter and will provide additional communication as appropriate. We appreciate your continued support of the Mary Queen of Peace School community."

Steve spoke up about his employment status in the above-mentioned interview and said, "I don’t know if I have a job yet."

He explained that his contract with the school ends in June and said he hopes to be paid through that time.

"They're doing some sort of investigation. I don't know how much more investigating they have to do. I believe it's a documentary. Yes, I believe that's from it," he said.

Shirilla has been working at the Cleveland school as an art and digital media teacher.