Post by Joanna on Jul 6, 2018 3:29:57 GMT -5
92-Year-Old Mom Shoots Son over Nursing Home Plans
FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz. – Anna Mae Blessing (above), a 92-year-old woman, allegedly killed her son because she did not want to be sent to an assisted living facility, authorities said. On Monday, deputies found Thomas Blessing, 72, on the bedroom floor of his home and his mother was taken into custody.
Blessing hid two pistols in the pockets of her robe and shot her son several times. According to court documents, the son’s girlfriend, who was also in the bedroom, said she heard Blessing telling her son she was tired of the way he treated her.
After dispatching her son, Mrs. Blessing then pointed the gun at the girlfriend and the two struggled until Blessing lost her grip. When she pulled out the second pistol, the girlfriend was able to disarm her again by knocking the pistol out of her hand, the statement read. Once the elderly woman was disarmed, she sat down in a reclining chair where she was still sitting when deputies arrived.
“From my understanding, she had thought about it for a few days because there was a dispute regarding her son wanting to put her in an assisted living home,” Sgt. Bryant Vanejas told CNN affiliate KPHO.
Blessing moved in with her son and his girlfriend about six months ago and according to Sheriff Paul Penzone, there had been six calls to law enforcement since January, four of which occurred on June 21. Another call was to report a possible case of identity theft report and the sixth involved a wrong-number call. “There were communications between the parties expressing the frustration in the relationship even to the point where both had expressed a concern that the other party could become violent,” Penzone confirmed.
While there were potential threats and concerns about violence between mother and son, the sheriff’s office did not intervene. Penzone said the agency will investigate how these calls were handled. “If we failed in any way, shape or form, that is unacceptable,” he added. “But we’re not ultimately the ones responsible when an individual decides to take the act of using a firearm or other weapon to take another life. It is that individual’s responsibility; they own that act.”
Following the fatal shooting, deputies searched the house and found 13 firearms, 11 of which belonged to the victim and two that belonged to Mrs. Blessing. The weapons were all unsecured and easily accessible.
Court records indicate Mrs. Blessing had been contemplating her son’s intentions to admit her to an assisted living facility for several days prior to the Monday morning shooting. She told deputies her son wanted her to leave because she “had become difficult to live with.”
“As the suspect was being escorted from the residence, she made a spontaneous statement to the effect: ‘You took my life, so I’m taking yours,’” court documents said. “Mrs. Blessing told deputies she had purchased one of the guns in the late 1970s and her husband gave her the other pistol.”
Sources: WXIN TV and CNN, July 4, 2018: and Nathan J. Fish, The Arizona Republic, July 5, 2018.
