A woman is accused of assaulting her 94-year-old mother with a hammer inside her northwest Atlanta home, authorities said.
Sandy Mathis, 56, has warrants for her arrest on charges of aggravated assault and simple battery for the incident that happened Dec. 3, Atlanta police spokeswoman Stephanie Brown told AJC.com.
Mathis has lived with her mother, Willie Monroe, for the past 20 years in the 1700 block of Thomas Drive, Channel 2 Action News reported. The incident was allegedly prompted by Monroe asking Mathis’ boyfriend to leave her home that night.
“My mama’s old school,” Ronald Monroe, Mathis’ brother and Willie Monroe’s son, told Channel 2. “It’s 10 o’clock on a Monday night ... my mama’s like, ‘Tell your company he has to leave.’ And my sister became enraged.”
Willie Monroe told police her daughter picked up a hammer and hit her in the head, back and hands, Brown said.
“My mom says she was on the ground in a fetal position as my sister was just hitting her with the hammer,” Ronald Monroe said.
Mathis told police her mother’s injuries were from a recent fall, and she wasn’t arrested at the scene, Brown said. In a police incident report, officers noticed bruising on her hands but no signs of injuries to her head.
Brown sent a statement that said, in part: “Officers offered the mother EMS, but she declined several times. At the time of the call, officers did not feel there was evidence to support the claim the mother was assaulted with a hammer.”
Willie Monroe told officers that the assault ended when she grabbed the hammer from Mathis’ hands, but the officers noted that she “did not appear physically strong enough to take the hammer away if this actually happened,” the report said.
However, investigators looking into the incident learned that she admitted herself to Grady Memorial Hospital after officers left, and doctors determined she had hand injuries, which prompted the arrest warrants to be obtained, Brown said.
The news station was unable to reach Mathis for comment.
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