A 92-year-old Arizona woman murdered her 72-year-old son because she thought he was planning to put her into a nursing home.
Anna Mae Blessing had been living with her son and his 57-year-old girlfriend for six months at their condo in Fountain Hills, a suburb northeast of Phoenix.
“You took my life, so I’m taking yours,” Blessing reportedly said as she shot her son twice. One shot struck his neck and the other, his jaw.
Her son’s girlfriend grabbed Blessing, knocking the gun from her hand. Blessing drew the other pistol and tried to shoot the girlfriend, who was able to wrestle the second pistol away from the elderly woman.
The girlfriend called the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office who arrived at the scene to take Blessing into custody.
Blessing told police she wanted to kill herself, but didn’t have another gun. She then told police she should be “put to sleep” for what she had done.
Blessing was charged with one count of murder in the first degree, one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of kidnapping.
Records show that sheriffs had responded to a domestic violence call at the residence before this incident, and that the “frequency/intensity of DV [domestic violence] was increasing.”
No further details were available.