A 92-year-old woman from the US state of Arizona killed her son in order to avoid being sent to an assisted living facility.
"You took my life, so I'm taking yours," Anna Mae Blessing said as deputies escorted her from the apartment in Fountain Hills she shared with her 72-year-old son and his girlfriend.
Court records show Blessing had been contemplating her son's intentions to put her in an assisted living facility for several days prior to the shooting on Monday, reports AZ Central newspaper.
Blessing told deputies her son wanted her to leave because she "had become difficult to live with". She reported hiding two pistols in the pockets of her robe before confronting her sleeping son, the records said.
She fired one of the pistols multiple times, striking and killing her son before pointing the gun at his girlfriend, who wrestled away the firearm and threw it into a corner of the room.
Officials said Blessing faces charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping. Her bail bond was set at $500,000.
This is the latest in a large number of gun-related deaths that have rocked America in 2018. While school shootings have become increasingly common, domestic deaths are also on the rise as more and more Americans have access to some form of weapon at home.
While the government has so far remained tight-lipped on any serious gun reforms, it has introduced new legislation to make it harder for high-calibre and rapid-fire magazines that were used in several mass shootings. President Donald Trump has also called for arming school teachers, but most anti-gun activists argue that this does little to prevent gun violence.
