There were no warning signs, nothing that would indicate Christopher and Cameron Ervin were plotting to kill their parents.

But police say the plan to kill Zachary and Yvonne Ervin had been in the works for a while.

“They were in 100 percent cahoots,” said Gwinnett Police Cpl. Deon Washington, who said the brothers have been cooperative with detectives.

They were arrested Saturday morning after their mother frantically called 911 to report she and her husband’s lives were in danger. Yvonne Ervin was found lying in bed at the family’s Snellville home, having been hit in the head several times with a rifle.

Her husband, Zachary Ervin, had been beaten and stabbed, was bleeding profusely and barely coherent. He remains hospitalized in stable condition, a police spokesman said late Wednesday afternoon.

“I tried to kill my [expletive] parents,” Cameron Ervin, 17, told officers Saturday. “Who does that?”

For friends and family, the bigger question is why.

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