Blessing has been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping. Bail was set at $500 000. The case resumes on July 13.
92-year-old Anna Mae Blessing. Image: AFP
A 92-year-old US mother, Anna Mae Blessing, has been charged with murdering her unnamed son, 72, because he planned to move her to a care facility.
Blessing was sharing a home with her son and his 57-year-old girlfriend in Fountain Hills, Maricopa County when the shooting happened on July 2.
“According to statements provided by suspect Blessing and received by detectives, she had been contemplating for several days her son’s intentions to place her in an assisted living facility, ” Maricopa Country sheriff’s office said in a press release.
Blessing said her son told her he was going to put her in a care home because she “had become difficult to live with.”
According to the police, the 92-year-old hid two pistols in her robe pockets before confronting her son his bedroom. She told police her rationale was: “You have ended my life, I’m taking yours”.
The son died from two bullet wounds to his neck and to his jaw.
The suspect then tried to shoot his girlfriend, but she charged Blessing and managed to wrestle the pistols from her.
The police statement revealed the mother planned to shoot herself after shooting her son, but this was thwarted when she lost possession of the pistols.
The pistols had not been used since the 1970s. One had been given to the suspect by her husband before he died, and she had allegedly bought the other pistol herself.
She told police she deserved to be “put to sleep” for her actions.
Blessing has been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping. Bail was set at $500 000. The case resumes on July 13.