A 92-year-old US woman shot and killed her son, 72, in order to avoid
being sent into a care home, police say. Anna Mae Blessing, who is
charged with murder, contemplated her son’s intentions to put her into
care for days, according to court documents. “You took my life, so
I’m taking yours,” she reportedly said as she was escorted out of the
Arizona home she shared with her son and his girlfriend. Mrs Blessing
told police she had intended to kill herself, too. The incident
happened in the morning of 2 July in the town of Fountain Hills,
Maricopa county, police records obtained by local media say. Mrs
Blessing’s son, whose name has not been released, wanted her to leave
for an assisted living facility because she “had become difficult to
live with”. The mother concealed two firearms in her robe pockets
before confronting her son in his bedroom, police said in a statement.
During the ensuing argument, she pulled out one revolver, purchased in
the 1970s, and fired at her son. Police found the son dead, with two
bullet wounds to his neck and jaw. Mrs Blessing then pointed the gun
at her son’s 57-year-old girlfriend, who managed to wrestle it away
and throw it into a corner of the room. She pulled out a second
pistol, which she told police her late husband had given to her in the
1970s. The girlfriend managed to knock this one out of Mrs Blessing’s
hands, too, before escaping and calling the sheriff’s office. Police
found Mrs Blessing in a reclining chair in her bedroom. She later told
them she deserved to be “put to sleep” for her actions. She is
charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping,
and her bail was set at $500,000.
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