TUCSON (Scripps News Tucson) — Tucson Police say a 13-year-old boy stabbed his mother to death—and admitted he attacked her in a fight over video games.
At about 9 p.m. Tuesday, Mary Ainuu ran up to her neighbor in a Rita Ranch neighborhood. She was bleeding from cuts to her throat. She said her 13-year-old son had attacked her.
A sworn statement by Tucson Police fills in the details.
It says officers found the boy not far from his house. Police say he told them he’d argued with his mother about video games.
Then he went to the kitchen, got a butcher knife and sharpened it.
He told police he found his mother in the living room, and hit her in the head with a five pound exercise weight—then stabbed her eight or nine times as she tried to escape.
Mary Ainuu was able to reach a neighbor, who called 9-1-1. A Tucson Fire Ambulance rushed her to St. Joseph’s Hospital but she died about three and a half hours after the attack began.
A spokesperson for Pima County Attorney Laura Conover says the case will be reviewed before there’s a decision on whether the teen will be charged as an adult.
Arizona state law says in first-degree murder cases, minors aged 15 and older shall be charged as adults, and minors at least 14 years old may be charged as an adult.
This story was originally published Jan. 13, 2022, by KGUN in Tucson, an E.W. Scripps Company.
