An Arkansas man has been arrested and is awaiting trial after he was accused of shooting his mother repeatedly in the head with a crossbow.

Mary Alexander informed the police that she awoke just before 7 a.m. on March 24 when she heard a cat meowing at her bedroom door, prompting her to get up and let it out. Moments afterward, she recalled, “she felt like her eardrum had popped and saw blue,” KNWA reported.

Her husband, Mike Alexander, heard her scream and hurried to see what happened, discovering their 29-year-old son, Joseph Alexander, standing over his mother with a crossbow. Mike Alexander said that his wife had several arrows in her head, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Subsequently, the son forced his way into his parents’ bedroom and demanded money. Mike Alexander informed investigators that he transferred $2,000 to his son via Cash App and sent another $400 in Bitcoin before Joseph began insisting on access to his parents’ bank account. His father explained that he didn’t know the code, prompting the son to yell at his mother, injured on the floor, to provide him with the code.

Mike Alexander convinced his son to go into the garage with him, where he tried to deescalate the situation. At that point, the son told his father “don’t worry about it” because “she’s dead,” referring to his mother.

But Mary Alexander wasn’t dead. While her husband and son were in the garage, she fled the house to a neighbor’s, who called 911. She later told police that she played dead while lying on the floor and that she heard her son tell his father he wouldn’t kill him “because that will be a double homicide.”

First responders found Mary Alexander at the neighbor’s home and rushed her to a hospital for treatment.

Later that day, deputies in Stone County, Missouri, spotted Mike Alexander’s truck, which his son had taken, and initiated a traffic stop. Joseph Alexander led them on a high speed chase before crashing, and then struggled with deputies until they tased him and arrested him.

He reportedly admitted to shooting his mother with what he called a “toy crossbow” three times because he “”thought she was going after my cat.”

“I didn’t have a reason,” he told a detective. “I just lost my cool. I woke up, and I thought that she was, like, going after my cat for some reason. I just, like, literally stood up and lost my shit because of my cat.”

He also admitted that he broke into his parents’ home before the incident and was walking around quietly so as not to wake them.

According to KFSM, Mike Alexander told investigators that his son had been making threats and demanding money from them a few days earlier.

You need to give me what is mine, or else I’m going to have to go to the next level,” he reportedly said “… I’m going to take things into my own hands, and Dad, you don’t want me to do that.”

The exchanged prompted the elder Alexanders to change the garage code and secure windows, but Alexander said he believed his son had unlocked his old bedroom window during an earlier visit.

He also said that his son took his and his wife’s phones after the attack on his wife to prevent them from calling 911.

He was charged with attempted capital murder, aggravated residential burglary, interference with emergency communications, and domestic battery. He’s being held on a $750,000 bond. He’s due in court again on June 9.

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