A 92-YEAR-OLD WOMAN has been arrested on suspicion of murdering her 72-year-old son over his plans to put her in a nursing home, US police have said.
Anna Mae Blessing was taken into custody on Monday at the home she shared with her son in Phoenix, Arizona and is being held on $500,000 bail.
The pensioner is accused of planning to kill her son, who has not been named, for days before shooting him dead to avoid being sent into care.
She did not enter a plea during a brief initial court appearance and it remains clear if she has retained an attorney.
Ms Blessing told detectives after her arrest that she hid two handguns in the pockets of her robe before shooting her son multiple times in his bedroom.
She tried to point the guns at her son's 57-year-old partner but the woman was able to wrestle the weapons away, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said.
The 92-year-old was sitting in a reclining chair in her bedroom when she was arrested after she refused to leave the house, according to court records.
She told detectives that she had intended to take her own life following the attack after the victim decided to place her in a care facility for being "difficult to live with".
Ms Blessing later told them she deserved to be "put to sleep" for her actions.
One of the guns had been a gift from her late husband while the other was her own purchase, but neither weapon had been fired since the 1970s.
Police said they had previously been called out to the property following a verbal altercation between Ms Blessing and her son.
She is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping, and her bail was set at $500,000.
